


Humanity's Grace

by blueye22



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abducted Castiel, Abduction, Angst with a Happy Ending, Animal Abuse, Animal Attack, Animal Lover Castiel (Supernatural), Animal Torture, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), BAMF Dean Winchester, BAMF Sam Winchester, Blood and Gore, Bottom Castiel (Supernatural), Bottom Castiel/Top Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester to the Rescue, Grace as a weapon, Graphic Description, Graphic Description of Corpses, Harm to Animals, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Manipulation, Minor Character Death, Non-Consensual Groping, Non-Consensual Kissing, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, Search and Rescue, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Survival, Thriller, Top Dean Winchester, Torture, animal cruelty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 14:17:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueye22/pseuds/blueye22
Summary: A group lead by a sadistic torturer is on the search for a weapon to bring forth plans that can have a detrimental impact on the Earth and the supernatural. This man believes Sam, Dean, and Cas have a weapon that has been prophesized to help or hinder his efforts; and believes Cas is the key to getting this weapon and abducts him. Cas is in a fight to survive; while Dean and Sam are in a fight to get Cas back.Beta Read: Lady_Destiel_WinchesterArtist: Blu Bunn





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [@bottomcasbigbang](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=%40bottomcasbigbang).



> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Supernatural or the characters of Supernatural. I am not making a profit from this work. 
> 
> WARNING: Please be aware that this story has sexual assault, sexual harassment, abduction, and graphic violence. Please take note of tags for more possible triggers before reading this fic. 
> 
> The amazing Blu Bunn has made a beautiful drawing for this story. Please follow the link to view the pic: https://blueyeward.tumblr.com/post/184349973621/the-amazing-blubunnart-artist-made-this-beautiful

(Click on the link below to see art by BluBunnArt for this story) 

<http://fav.me/dd561sr>

The sounds of choked sobs and gasps of breath filled the silent room. A tall man walks away from a sobbing woman, who was being held to a chair with warded cuffs. He walks to a table with torture tools, and grabs a hand towel to wipe blood off his hands. The door to the room suddenly bursts open as another man steps in. The man wiping the blood away gave the other man a fierce glare for the interruption.

            “Al-,” the other man started, but he was cut off.

            “ _Don’t_ say my name. You know you don’t say my name in this room,” the torturer spoke sharply.

            “Ri-right…sorry,” the other man stuttered out.

            “What is it that you want?” the torturer interrupted once again, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

            The other man sends a hesitant glance to the torturer’s victim before answering vaguely, “We have that update you asked for earlier.”

            “Ah,” the torturer’s demeanor suddenly went relaxed, and his tone became more pleasant, “do go on,” he urged.

            The other man shuffled his feet, and the torturer had to stop himself from laughing as he watched the other man squirm. “Well…,” the man began after sending another hesitant glance to the victim, “they are here in town…on a case. All three of them,” the man answered, continuing his careful vagueness in front of the victim. The torturer let himself smile for the first time since the exchange began, confusing the other man and the victim even more, much to the internal enjoyment of the torturer.

            “That is wonderful news,” The torturer explained. He turned to his victim, “Did you hear that, Cordelia, the Winchester’s and their angel, Castiel, are here in town…right on time. Just like your prediction stated.”

            The torturer almost laughed as the visible paling of the victim, and the audible choking of the man behind him, at the information that he let slipped through his lips. The ignorance was laughable. They really thought he let that information slip by accident.

            “I-I don’t need to know that. You don’t need to tell me anything,” the witch whispered, the fear evident in her eyes, as if she already knew what the consequence was of knowing too much information.

            “Hmm…yes, I suppose your right,” the torturer said, tone and body posture relaxed and casual as he leaned against the bolted table with the torture weapons. “And I suppose you have provided me with all the information you had,” the torturer continued, his face stretching with an apparent grateful smile. Cordelia gave a small, hesitant smile back as a small, glitter of hope twinkled in her eyes. Oh, the sight was beautiful, the torturer thought, as he pulled his gun from his holster and aimed. Cordelia only had time to scream, “NO!”, before the torturer pulled the trigger and a witch killing bullet penetrated her skull, killing her instantly.

            The torturer gave a pleased sigh before saying out loud, “It really is the best when they think they have a chance.” The torturer let himself savor the moment before giving a casual shrug and holstering his gun. He turned and began the process of cleaning his torture weapons.

            “Do we know where they are staying?” the torturer asked without turning around.

            “When I spoke to our men ten minutes ago, they hadn’t checked in anywhere yet. They went straight for the library.”

            The man gave a thoughtful _hmm_ before responding, “I guess it’s true what they say, they really do hit the ground running.”

            “I guess so. The first article about the bodies didn’t publish until two days ago.”

            “Do they live close by?” the torturer asked.

            “Hard to say. We still don’t know where they live, and they could have been anywhere when they read that first article.”

            The torturer paused in cleaning his tools, and with a slight turn of his head, he calmly asked, “And why do we not have this information?” His body was still relaxed, but his hard eyes told the true story of how unhappy he was about this information.

            The man behind him shifted around uncomfortably and cleared his throat before answering, “We can’t get close to find out. The Winchesters would spot a tail too easily. Anyways, our chances with them increase when they are outside of their home base.”

            “Hmm…I suppose you are right. But we will need access to their home at some point.”

            “I have no doubt that you will be able to… _obtain_ …the information from them once we have them in our home base.”

            The torturer’s only response was a slow, sinister smile. The two men were quiet for a short moment before the subordinate spoke up again, “Um… well…,”

            “She is dead…you can say my name now…,” the torturer interrupted.

            At this response, the subordinate gave a confused frown, “Why keep it a secret in the first place if you plan on killing them in the end anyways?”

            This prompted an annoyed glare from the torture, “Because a torturer extracts information, they do not provide it. One piece of information and it ruins everything.”

            The subordinate still looked confused, but wisely chose to not say anything else on the manner, “Uh…right, sorry, Alec. Did she have any new information?”

            This prompted a frustrated sigh from Alec as he began cleaning the weapons in a rougher manner, “No. It’s the same damn prediction each time, no matter the power of the psychic. This one was both witch and psychic, and still it was the same information.” Alec finally finished cleaning the last of the weapons. “ _Two brothers, an angel, and a formidable weapon could be your beginning…or your end.”_

“The first part is obvious: the Winchesters and their angel. But what weapon is it talking about? We haven’t noticed or heard about a special weapon in their possession.”

            “No… but they’re also not ones for sharing…information or otherwise,” Alec answered.

            There was a moment of silence before the other man cleared his throat, an obvious tell that he had something he wanted to say, but was too scared to ask. Alec released an annoyed sigh before turning and learning against the table. “What is it, Spencer?” Alec asked.

            “It’s just that…are we sure about going after the Winchesters is a good idea? I mean-,” but Spencer did not get a chance to finish because Alec abruptly turned around and cut him off with a cold glare.

            “Spencer…are you having second thoughts about the plan?” Alec asked with a warning tone.

“No,” Spencer was quick answer, “I just…”

“Speak, Spencer,” Alec warned.

“It’s the Winchesters’, Alec,” Spencer rushed to blurt out.

“What about them?”

“They’ve been at this before. Where someone goes up against them, and guess what? They win. Every. Single. Time.”

“What’s your point?” Alec asked, this time annoyed.

“So why go after them at all.”

“Because they have the very thing that we need to be a success,” Alec answered, his tone as casual as if he was talking about the weather.

“I find it hard to believe that there is only one weapon on Earth that would make our plan a success.”

“What is obvious, is that one way or another, we will come across this weapon. Better to go for it head on and steal it away, then to have it used against us,” Alec responded, his tone and relaxed faced still showing that he was not the least bit worried.

“It’s the Winchester’s though! Everybody who has gone up against them has lost, what will make us any different?”

“It’s not impossible, Spencer. They are only human,” Alec sounded almost amused this time.

“Obviously that hasn’t stopped them before,” Spencer snapped, earning him a warning look from Alec. Spencer quickly clamped his mouth shut and glared down at his feet, “Sorry, it’s just that, if they find out what we are doing, they’ll come after us and ruin everything.”

“You’re being ridiculous, Spencer. We’re coming for them and that weapon first, so that they don’t come after us later.”

“I hope you’re right, Alec,” was Spencer’s response after a short moment of silence.

Alec walked over to a second table in the room where rows of surveillance photos were laid out. He picked one up that was from today apparently, as the Winchester’s and their angel were getting out of the Impala that was parked in front of this town’s public library.

“Of course I’m right,’ Alec answered confidently. He let his thumb trace over the part of the picture that had Castiel. His voice became much softer as he let his thumb caress Castiel’s face as he said, “After all…they do have their weaknesses.”

 

Sam, Dean, and Castiel were all sitting at a table at the town’s local public library in a comfortable silence. Castiel had his very own notebook opened up in front of him. A few weeks back the brothers and Castiel were doing some personal supplies shopping at Target. Castiel, what with him being an angel, did not need any personal supplies; so had very quickly grown bored and wandered off to look around while the brothers did their shopping. Castiel was passing by a large section of notebooks and composition books, when the notebook set caught his eye. It was a set of ten, thin notebooks. The front notebook on display caught his attention because it had a picture of a bear. It was no secret that Cas loved all of the animals his father created, and had a fascination with them. The package of the notebook set said "Woodland Creatures" on the front. Cas was trying to peek at the different animals on the notebooks without messing up the intricate packaging that held the notebooks together when Dean had finally found him. Cas was gently sliding up another earthly tone notebook that had a picture of a fox on it, when the sound of Dean’s voice from behind him made him jump.

“You like those, huh?” was what Dean had asked after sneaking up behind Cas to get a look at what had grabbed the angel’s attention.

Cas whirled around and gave a half-hearted glare at Dean before saying, “Dean! Don’t do that! You startled me.”

“Hey, I’ve been calling your name and looking for you all over the store. Not my fault you weren’t paying attention,” Dean answered, amusement obvious in his voice. Dean quickly grabbed the notebook set from Cas’s hands, and placed it in his cart. “Now, come on,” Dean stated as he started pushing the cart away, “we’re all done here. Time to check out.”

Cas frowned as he watched Dean walk away. “But Dean,” Cas called after the hunter, “we need to put those notebooks back.”

“Nope they’re right where they need to be,” Dean answered and then continued.

Cas jogged to catch up to Dean, “Dean, it’s a kind gesture, but you don’t need to get me those notebooks.”

Dean only continued to push the cart, ignoring what Cas had said, and instead answered, “Better hurry, Cas. Sam is waiting for us at the front of the store, and he has been complaining of being hungry this whole time. If we don’t hurry, we may have a hangry moose on our hands before long,” Dean finished, giving Cas an exaggerated _yikes_ look.

“Really Dean,” Cas continued, “we don’t need those notebooks.” Cas attempted to reach into the cart to grab the notebook set himself, but Dean slapped at his hand.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Notebooks are for note taking. Note taking is important,” Dean answered in a mock serious tone.

 

            Cas gently fingered one of the note book’s delicate pages as the memory prompted a smile. Cas had argued with Dean the whole way to the check out, but it didn’t do any good. The presence of the notebooks had brought a raised eyebrow from Sam, but Dean had only smirked at his confused brother. Sam looked at Cas for an answer, but the angel had flushed and looked away from Sam’s curious eyes. This must have given Sam the answer he needed, though, because he only let out a easy chuckle at Cas’s response, which only served to redden Cas’s cheeks even further. Despite Cas’s initial objection, he was very grateful to Dean for the gift, and hadn't put the notebooks down since. They weren’t as practical as the basic, spiraled-bound notebooks that Sam always used, but Cas still loved them all the same…for the mere fact that they were a gift from Dean…and the animals of course.

            The thought of his favorite hunters brought Cas to look up to check in on them. He knew that a Library was the most least likely of places for danger to happen, but Cas couldn’t help it. It was a form of comfort, to look up and confirm that the brothers were close and okay. Dean had a stack of local history books in front of him, that he was currently sifting through. Sam had his laptop out and was using the Library’s wifi to look up old newspaper archives and to hack into the police database for reports. Cas was currently translating text and spells from his memory into his notebook, hoping that some of the stuff he remembered would be helpful in this particular case. Cas closed his eyes as images of those gruesome crime scenes flashed in his mind. Cas could only be glad that those poor people’s suffering was over, and were hopefully at peace in their heaven.

            Just as Cas was about to refocus his attention to the task at hand, a very loud grumbling sound broke the comfortable silence at the table. Both Cas and Dean looked up from their tasks and glanced at Sam, whose face was now turning bright red.

            “Hungry, Sam?” Dean asked with a teasing smirk, as Cas hid a chuckle behind his hands.

            “Hey, we’ve been here since lunch, and haven’t taken a single break,” Sam defended, still looking flustered.

            Dean only laughed in response, but checked the time on the phone and let out a low whistle.

            “It’s 6:30.Yeah, let’s call it a day and head to the diner we passed by earlier. Judging by the glares our lovely librarian has been sending us, I think it’s almost closing time anyways.”

            The three gathered their belongings, and hopped into Dean’s car to head straight for the diner. Ten minutes later found the three seated at a booth, waiting for their order. After a moment, the three started to discuss what they found through their research.

            “So, I’m still not fully convinced that this is one of our gigs,” Dean answered who had been doubtful of the case from start. “There hasn’t been anything that suggests this is more than just some sick serial killer with a knowledge of Enochian.”

            Cas couldn’t blame Dean for thinking that, as he had seen pictures of the gruesome scene the killer had left behind with each of his victims. The victims had been both males and females, found dead, usually by a gunshot to the head, but the state of the victims’ bodies suggested that they had been tortured. As horrible as all of that was, it did not point to anything supernatural. Except for the words written on their bodies, according to Sam, because the words had been written in Enochian. When Sam had shown Cas a picture of the dead bodies that he had gotten from the police database, Cas had tried to translate, but for some reason he could not. While the letters were obviously Enochian, they had slight differences between the letters and words he knew. The phrasing had looked familiar, but he was unable to translate and he could not understand why. Which is why he was trying to write down everything he could that looked remotely similar to what was written on the bodies.

            “A serial killer with a knowledge of Enochian that Cas, who is an angel I might add, does not have,” Sam answered, shooting Dean an incredulous look.

            Dean sighed and turn towards Cas, “Cas, are you sure that those words are not jogging your memory?”

            “I am certain, Dean. I have never seen those words before.”

            “And your certain it’s not just the killer getting fancy with the writing?”

            “Yes, Dean. Those words do not exist in the Enochian language that I know,” Cas answered.

            “Is there more than one Enochian language,” Sam asked.

            Cas gave a resigned sigh, “Before today I would have said no, but that is the only explanation. That, or when my father created the angels, he purposefully hidden away some words or phrasing from our understanding. Which…knowing him…that is not entirely impossible,” Cas finished with a dry smile.

            Dean scoffed and ran a hand down his face as he gave another sigh in annoyance, “Well, either way, we still have nothing to go on. I don’t know of any monster that would choose a gunshot to the head as their preferred choice of killing. And they would have at least tried to make the death look accidental, of natural causes, or were mauled by an animal. But these bodies are just screaming for attention…a monster’s wrong kind of attention. I mean, they had to have known this would have got the attention of hunters.”

            Sam sat back as he thought in silence for a while, but then tilted his before saying, “Maybe that’s what they wanted? To get a hunter’s attention?”

            “If that’s the plan, then it worked,” Dean answer with a grump.

            “So we could be walking into a trap,” Cas said aloud.

            At that moment, the waitress walked up with their food, ending the conversation. As soon as the brother’s plates and Castiel’s cup of coffee was placed in front of them and the waitress had walked away, Dean spoke up, “Okay, well I say we pick back up tomorrow morning. Do some research on the victims.” The three agreed before digging into their meals.

 

            The following morning Cas found himself relaxing on the hotel bed as he continued his project from the day before. Sam and Dean had already left for the day to do interviews, and check scenes out. Cas had opted to stay behind so that he can focus more on writing down translations. The brothers had initially been against it.

            “Are you sure you want to stay here all day by yourself,” Sam had asked, a concern frown maring his features.

            “Yeah,” Dean agreed, “and anyways, didn’t you say last night you didn’t know what the words mean. What’s the point in remembering every translation if you don’t know what those words mean.”

            “Context, Dean,” Cas answered casually without looking up from his notebook, “I’m going to try and see if I can make sense of the phrase by using the context.”

            Dean rolled his eyes before responding, “Okay, one, clearly you and Sam are spending too much time together because his nerdiness is rubbing off on you,” that earned Dean a bitch face from Sam that he ignored before continuing, “and secondly, you have to know at least one of the words to get a context. You don’t know any of them,” he pointed out.

            “Yes, but they look similar to words I do know. I’ll try and figure out the context here at the hotel. It’ll be easier for me if there is nothing around to distract me.”

            Dean gave a resigned sighed, and Cas knew he had won.

            “Alright, but call if you need anything, okay,” Dean demanded.

            Cas resisted rolling his eyes, and instead gave an affirmative nod before saying, “Yes, Dean, but I’ll be fine. You two go on ahead. I promise to call, if needed.”

            The brothers left, and Cas spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the bed and writing down Enochian phrases and words.

 

            Some hours later, there was a rough knock on the motel door. Cas looked up from his writings with a frown as he stared at the motel door. Cas knew enough that if it was housekeeping, the person on the other side would have announce as such. There was another rough, and this time louder, knock on the motel door, startling Cas into jumping up from the bed. Cas could only assume that it was the brothers, as there was no one else who knew where they were staying. Cas hurried to the door before the brothers decided to kick the door down.

            “Hey, did you forget your key-,” Cas stopped in surprise at what greeted him on the other side of the motel door. It was not Dean or Sam that stood before him, but rather a stranger. It was another man, that appeared to be a few years older than Cas’s vessel. He was tall, same height as Dean, but had a more similar build to Cas’s own. The man had a small, confident smile crossing his face as he leaned against the door jam, but it was the eyes that confused Cas. Those light, blue-green eyes appeared to twinkle amusement, while looking cold at the same time. The combination put Cas on edge.

            “Hello?” Cas stated, and inwardly cursed himself when it came out as a question. He cursed some more when this response brought some amused chuckles from this stranger, which only served to put Cas even further on edge. Suddenly the stranger straightened up from the door jamb, and held out his right hand. After only a slight hesitation, Cas grasped the man’s hand, and was only slightly surprised by the firm, and strong grip the man had on Cas’s hand.

            “Hello,” the man answered in a deep voice, almost as deep as Cas’s, “I’m, Alec.”


	2. Chapter 2

Cas warily observed the stranger standing before him. Cas would admit that he did not know and understand all social norms, but even he knew that one does not just walk up to a person’s motel door and introduce yourself. Not without some ulterior motive.

            “You going to invite me in?” Alec asked, and the amused smile that crossed his face bothered Cas. It was like he was making fun of Cas, and it was obvious to everyone but Cas.

            “No,” Cas answered bluntly as he glared back at Alec.

            Unfortunately, that only brought a chuckle from the man as he returned to leaning casually against the door jamb.

            “Now that’s not nice,” Alec teased, “and here I thought the Winchester’s taught you better manners.”

            If Cas could glare any harder at the man he would have. He really did not like being made fun of.

            “If you’re not going to say anything useful, then you can go now,” Cas answered, and wanted to smile because he knew Dean and Sam would be proud. Unfortunately, this did not deter the man. If anything, the man looked even more amused.

            “Don’t think that would be a good idea. Wouldn’t want to make Dean worry, now would we?”

            Cas frowned as he became more confused than annoyed now. Dean would worry? As far as Cas knew, neither of the Winchester’s even knew who this man was. Cas thought he either knew personally or knew of all of the brother’s friends.

            “Why would Dean worry,” Cas asked.

            “He wanted me to call when I arrived at the motel room. Said you would be… _eager_ … to help me,” Alec answered smugly.

            Cas’s confusion only grew from there. He couldn’t imagine Dean telling some stranger where their motel was… not unless he trusted them. Maybe the brothers knew this man, after all? But still… he couldn’t shake the instant dislike he had for this stranger… and he certainly didn’t appreciate the way this man was talking and looking at him.

            “Dean sent you here?” Cas finally asked, the hesitance still in his voice.

            “Mmm-hmm,” the man answered, who had by now decided to fully relax against the door jamb with his head resting against it. Cas find himself immediately annoyed again. This man leaning against the door jamb, completely relaxed, as if Cas wasn’t capable of smiting the bastard to the deepest pits of hell if he so pleased. It was insulting.

            “Why?” Cas asked bluntly.

            “We crossed paths at the hospital. Turns out we’re on the same case,” the man answered.

            Cas observed the man carefully as he was speaking, using his grace to look for any signs of deception. Unfortunately, Cas did not find any, but he reminded himself that this man could have easily worded his response so that the truth was situational. Cas thought about calling Dean right then and there before inviting the man into the motel, but then this large SUV suddenly pulled up and a group of men got out and began unloading suit cases. One thing Cas knew was never a good idea, was to bring unwanted attention to the hunting cases. Cas gave the man a warning glare before standing aside to let the man inside. The man only responded by casually straightening up from the door jamb, amused smile still set in place. Cas flinched though when the man suddenly leaned in close to whisper in Cas’s ear, “Thank you.”

            Cas jerked away from the man and fumbled while he went to shut the door, but purposefully kept it unlocked, and Cas thought he heard the man laughing behind him. He finally whirled around, still giving the man a wary glance. There was a moment of silence before the man asked, “Will you call Dean for me?”

            “Oh…yes…,” Cas looked around for his phone, but frown when he did not see it on the table. He began to search for it through his pockets when suddenly the man spoke up, “Is this your phone?” Cas looked up startled, and was surprised to see it was his phone. The man stated again, “It was on the bed.” Cas frowned at that as he could have sworn he had it on the table. Cas retrieved his phone, and decided to not thank the arrogant man.

            “I’ll give Dean a call.”

            The man gave a thankful nod, while Cas gave a glance to the bathroom behind him. Cas tried to find a subtle way for him to make the phone call in the privacy of the bathroom, but the man’s full body was blocking the way to the bathroom, and Cas could not go outside due to the civilians that he could hear making a ruckus outside the motel door. Even if he could make it to the bathroom, there was no guarantee that the man wouldn’t stand outside the bathroom door to listen in. Reluctantly, Cas unlocked his phone and quickly called Dean.

 

            Dean was driving his baby away from the burger joint when his phone rang. Dean glanced down, seeing that it was Cas, quickly reached out to the speaker phone button.

            “Hey. Buddy, you’re on speaker phone,” Dean answered in way of greeting, “we’re on our way back to the motel. Just grabbed me a burger, and Samantha got his rabbit food.” Dean only smiled at the bitch face Sam sent his way.

            “That’s great…um…,” Cas responded, his tone hesitant and unsure. Both brothers frowned down at the phone.

            “Something wrong, Cas,” Sam asked, still frowning in concern.

            “No…it’s just…um,” Cas continued, still sounding unsure. Then there was the sound of Cas gasping, then huffing in annoyance. Suddenly there was the sound of someone laughing. It was a soft laugh, which told the brothers that whoever it was must be really close to the phone in order for Sam and Dean to hear the laugh…and it was most definitely not Cas. The brothers looked at each other in alarm.

            “What’s wrong, Cas,” Dean demanded, unconsciously pressing his foot on the gas to speed the car up, thankful that they were already heading in the direction of the motel.

            “I was calling to let you know your hunter friend made it here safely. He said you would want a call once he arrived here. Something about you saying I could help him with something about the case you are working on together with,” Cas answered, still sounding hesitant and unsure, though now the brothers thought he sounded nervous. With good reason, too, because they most definitely did not meet another hunter on this case, and definitely did not send anyone to the motel, where Cas would be waiting alone.

            “Was that him I just heard,” Dean asked, this time trying to sound calm, not wanting to alarm Cas.

            “Yes,” Cas answered, and the brothers’ concern only deepened when Cas started to not hide how nervous he is.

            “Okay, that’s good, Cas,” Sam took over in his usual calm voice, “can you give him the phone?”

            “Yes,” Cas answered. They could hear Cas tell the other hunter that the brothers wanted to talk to him, what sounded like another laugh as Cas made another annoyed sound, then finally, “Hello,” cam the stranger’s voice.

            “Who the hell are you,” Dean demanded sharply, and he wanted to ask what the hell the man was doing to his-…to Cas.

            There was the sound again of the man laughing, and Dean already wanted to punch him.

            “Oh, just passing along that information I told you about earlier. You were right Winchester. Your angel is so… _eager_ …to help,” the man answered, obviously wanted to keep up pretenses in order to not prompt any rash actions.

            “I will not ask you again,” Dean warned.

            “Hmm…you’re right. This case could get dangerous,” the man stated, continuing to ignore Dean’s question, “but I think if we play our cards right…there’ll be no need for anyone to get hurt.”  The veiled threat did not go unnoticed by the brothers. In response, Sam noisily pulled out his gun to check that it is loaded. Dean instead responded with his own threat, “I’m going to say this once, and only once. If you harm so much as a hair on his head, and I promise you, there will be no place on this Earth where I can’t hunt you down. And once I get my hands on you, and oh believe me, I will; you’ll be begging me to kill you by the time I am done with you.”

            There was a moment of silence before the man gave another soft, amused laugh before saying, “Yes…I think you are understanding things perfectly,” and then hung up. There was a moment of silence before Dean slammed his hand on the steering wheel and screamed, “SON OF A BITCH!”

            “Dean, just-,” Sam started but was cut off when Dean abruptly held up a hand.

            “Don’t,” Dean answered firmly, “don’t tell me to calm down,” was all that he said before he sped his baby up even further, flying down the road on his way back to the motel and to Cas.

 

            Cas was trying to struggle out of Alec’s grip when he noticed that the other man had hanged up the phone. Cas was still so flustered with how he had ended up in this situation in the first place, that he still hadn’t processed Alec’s strange responses to whatever Dean had said on the phone. It had started off with Alec slowly walking closer to Cas as he had talked with Dean on the phone. Cas had matched each step forward with a step back, but he was annoyed to find that he had backed himself up against the heavy dresser behind him. He had become even more annoyed when Alec responded by crowding him up against the dresser. Cas didn’t even get a chance to say something before Alec had lifted Cas to sit on top of the dresser and took a step forward into the open space between Cas’s legs before he had a chance to close them or jump down from the dresser. What was worse, was Alec was getting amusement from all of this, if his laugh was anything to go by. Now that Alec was off the phone, Cas spared a second to think that what he heard Alec say did not sound right, and he thought he heard Dean angry on the other end. Before he had a chance to push the man away and start demanding answers, the other man spoke up.

            “That’s a good angel. That wasn’t so hard was it?” Alec asked, his tone gentle as if he was speaking with a child.

            Cas would normally show his annoyance at the condescending tone, but he was instead shocked into silence and momentarily paused his struggles to look at the man.

            “Y-you know that I am an angel,” Cas asked, and that’s when he knew for sure something was definitely wrong here. Sam and Dean wouldn’t share this with a complete stranger, hunter or not.

            “Mmm-hmm,” the man answered and then there was the sound of two metal clinks and a tightness around Cas’s right wrist. Cas hurriedly look down and confirmed his suspicions that this man just restrained him with angel cuffs to the heavy handle of one of the dresser drawers. Cas angrily jerked his wristed, and gave the man an angry glare.

            “What is the meaning of this?” Cas demanded as he attempted to push the man away with his free hand, “Dean never sent you here.”

            “Mmm, I’m afraid not,” the man whispered before softly nuzzling his face into the sensitive skin of Cas’s neck. The man brought out another set of cuffs, and Cas was helpless to stop him from restraining his other wrist. Cas jerked at his wrists and tried to shake the man’s touch from him, but the man only laughed at his efforts. Annoyed, Cas jerked his head away from the hot breath that was on his ear. The man finally took a step back, but only to rest his hands on the dresser on either side of Cas.

            “Now, where is your angel blade,” the man asked, arrogant smirk still in place.

            Cas glared at the man, refusing to answer. The man huffed out another laugh before straightening up to crowd back into Cas’s space.

            “Fine, have it your way,” the man said before grasping Cas’s waist, groping tightly at his hips. Cas swallowed down the feeling, and struggled against the groping.

            “S-stop…stop it,” Cas demanded, but he was ignored. When the hands started to tug at his shirt, Cas yelled out. “My coat sleeve! It’s in my coat sleeve.”

            The man smirked, but remove his hands to tug the angel blade from Cas’s sleeve. Suddenly the blade came up and tilted his chin up to where Cas was looking up at the man.

            “There, now we can have a civilized conversation,” Alec whispered.

            “Take these cuffs off and I’ll take this… _civilized_ conversation up another level,” Cas responded.

            The man let out a huff as he gently traced the point of the blade around Cas’s jaw line, “Yeah, I bet you would…but there’s no need for that. Besides…we only have so much time before those Winchesters’ come barging in… and interrupt all of our fun.”

            Cas was silent for a moment before finally asking, “What exactly do you plan on doing?” and tried to ignore the slight nervousness in the tone. Alec only smiled in response before he lifted a hand towards Cas’s face, causing Cas to quickly flinch away from the hand. Alec paused before huffing as he let his hand drop.

            “Relax,” Alec whispered, “I’m actually here to help.”

            Cas released a scoff of his own before saying, “You expect me to believe this is you helping?”

            There was silence following Cas’s sarcastic question as Alec did nothing but stare at him. Cas was beginning to worry that Alec would lash out at him, but suddenly the man stepped back into Cas’s space. Cas’s body stiffened and he tried to scoot his body as far back as the angel cuffs would allow. His efforts were meaningless as Alec grasped Cas’s hips and tugged him flushed against his body once again.

            “Yes,” the man whispered, “I’m here to help.” Suddenly, the man’s hand dipped into Cas’s pants pocket, causing Cas to squirm. He wanted this man to stop touching him. The man finally took a step back, and blatantly looked over Cas’s body. After a moment he pulled out a set of keys on a ring and tossed them on the floor, out of Cas’s reach.

            “Those are the keys to the cuffs. Come see me tonight, and you’ll learn how I can help.”

            With that said, Alec whirled around and walked out, slamming the motel door behind him.

 

            Alec wasn’t lying when he said Sam and Dean were not far away because only ten minutes passed when suddenly the motel door was kicked in, revealing Cas’s two favorite humans. As soon as the door fell open, Sam and Dean were entering guns drawn. They paused when they noticed that Cas was alone.

            “He’s gone,” Cas shared. He looked down at his feet as he felt his cheeks redden a little, feeling embarrassed because of how easily he was caught off guard.

            The boys lower their guns, but their postures remain tense and guarded. Without even speaking Sam shut and barred the door before pausing at the window to keep watch, as Dean moved towards Cas.

            “The keys are over there,” Cas nodded to where Alec had thrown the keys. Dean quickly grabbed them, and began unlocking them.

            “What happened, Cas,” Dean asked tensely as he remain focused on the angel cuffs. Cas couldn’t bring himself to answer as he continue to look down at his feet in shame. Dean paused in his movements when he didn’t hear anything from Cas.

            “Hey, are you okay,” Dean asked, this time his tone more gentle, “did he hurt you?”

            “No, I’m not feeling any pain,” Cas answered without looking up from his shoes.

            When Cas didn’t elaborate, Dean gently lifted Cas’s chin so that he had to look at Dean.

            “Not what I asked,” Dean stated, “did he hurt you,” he asked again, his tone more firm this time.

            “No… he just kept touching me… and getting too close. I wanted him to stop,” Cas answered. With them being this close, he was able to watch Dean’s facial muscles rein in his rage. It left Cas breathless. Dean gently squeezed Cas’s shoulder before saying, “Well… for that alone I will hunt his ass down and put some bullets in him.”

            Cas couldn’t help but smile a little at that, not doubting that promise for a second. Dean went back to unlocking the angel cuffs from Cas’s wrists, as Cas filled Sam and Dean in on what happened.

            “So he claims he can help us,” Sam asked when Cas was done.

            Cas nodded before adding, “He said to come see him tonight, and he’ll explain how to help with the case.”

            “See him where,” Dean demanded.

            Cas frowned in thought until he remember Alec’s hand slipping into his pocket. Cas put his hand in his pants pocket, and sure enough, he felt cardstock paper. It ended up being a business card for a downtown restaurant, and the time of 8:00pm was written on the back.

            “It feels like a trap,” Cas commented.

            “Yes,” Sam agreed, “but if he went through this much effort to get our attention, it goes without saying he’ll try again.”

            Dean huffed out a laugh before saying, “The hell with that. They wanted our attention? Well, they got it,” and then storming out of the motel towards Baby.

            Cas blinked after Dean, before sending a confused look at Sam, “What’s he going to do, Sam?”

            “Oh, he’s just going to go say hi,” Sam answered with an amused smile and a wink.

            Cas felt himself blush, but tried covering it up by quickly following behind Dean. The sound of Sam’s laughter told him he wasn’t successful.

 

            When Cas and the brother’s arrived at the restaurant, they were surprised to see how high end it appeared… and very popular apparently. The whole restaurant was filled with civilians. Cas could immediately tell that Dean was not happy about the latter.

            “Freaking, stupid coward bringing this to the public,” Cas had heard Dean mumbled.

            Sam stepped up behind Dean and quietly muttered, “Dean, we cannot make a scene here.”

            Dean sent an annoyed look at his brother, but then covered it up with a scoff and, “Uh, yeah. Duh, Samantha.” That earned him an eyeroll and bitch look #44.

            The three did not have to look long once they entered the restaurant. Alec had a table directly facing the door, and had proceeded to stand up as soon as Cas stepped into view. Cas quietly whispered to the boys, “That’s him.” The three calmly approached. Dean looked like he was about to say something, but Alec beat him to it.

            “Castiel, I’m so glad you decided to join me…but I’m confused as to the presence of the other two,” despite the words, Cas did not think he was confused.

            “Cut the crap, and just give us whatever information you have,” Dean answered.

            Alec only smiled before responding, “I’m sorry, but my reservation was for only Cas and I. Why don’t you go wait at the bar,” Alec waved a hand and a waiter quickly approached.

            “There are seats waiting for you at the bar sirs,” the waiter suggested.

            Dean ignored the waiter in favor of glaring at Alec, “Not going to happen. Give us the information, and you can get back to your fancy dinner… _alone_.”

            Alec only gave a resigned sigh in response before giving a second wave, this one less elegant. Three large men suddenly approach the brothers and Cas from behind. He could see that at least one had a gun on them. Cas gently grabbed Dean’s arm before saying, “It’s okay, Dean. I’ll be alright.” Dean didn’t budge though, and Cas noticed Dean’s other hand going for his gun. Cas quickly whispered, “Dean, please. There are civilians here.” A few more seconds pass before Dean turned to Cas and whispered, “Fine, but if you have even an inkling of a bad feeling, just look over at me, understand?”

            “Yes, Dean,” Cas assured.

            Dean took a step back and pointed to the closest chairs at the bar, “We’ll just be right here, okay?”

            Cas gave a reassuring nod, and then turned toward Alec, who was looking like he was enjoying this. Cas glared as he sat down across from the other man.

            “Thank you for joining me, Castiel,” Alec stated as he leaned forward on the table.

            “Just don’t waste my time,” Cas answered coldly.

            Alec huffed out a laugh before whispering, “Oh, angel, I promise you by the end of this night, you’ll know this was anything but a waste.” That heated look was back, and Cas couldn’t stop the shiver that traveled down his body.


	3. Chapter 3

Cas was beyond annoyed. For the last half hour, the man hasn’t shared anything about whatever information he has about the case the Winchesters and Cas were on. Instead, Alec has gone on and on about the food, the town, and the damn weather. The dessert, which Alec had chosen for him, arrived and Cas decided to demand answers before the other man began any other meaningless talk.

            “Stop stalling, and give me the information you have,” Cas demanded.

            “Try your dessert,” Alec said instead, “it’s delicious.”

            “No. Tell me the information now,” Cas answered, finally running out of patience. His voice must have been louder than expected as every person had looked over at Cas’s and Alec’s table. And a quick glance showed that both the Winchester brothers and Alec’s guards were slowly going towards their guns. None of this seemed to have disturbed Alec though, he just continued to gaze at Cas as if everything else wasn’t there.

            “It should be criminal, you know,” Alec stated thoughtfully.

            Cas frowned in confusion before Alec clarified, “What the Winchesters do to you.”

            Cas’s confusion and annoyance only grew as he asked, “What are you talking about? They don’t do anything to me.”

            “They neglect you, though,” Alec answered confidently.

            Cas decided he didn’t care about any attention he might get from the civilians in the restaurant and responded with, “You are not making any sense, and your games are growing tiresome.”

            Alec carried on as if Cas had never spoken, “They put you, a delicate beauty, at unnecessary risk by bringing you out on hunts.”

            Those words bubbled up an anger inside Cas, and he had to reign in his grace that was reacting to his anger. He was tired of being underestimated… objectified by the likes of Alec. In a low voice Cas answered, “I would watch your mouth if I were you. Yes, Sam and Dean do look out for me, but make no mistake, I do not need protection. I am an angel of the Lord and I can fry your entire body into a puddle of mush with the lightest touch.”

            That amused smile crossed Alec’s face again, and Cas found himself wanting to burn that smile away.

            “Hmm…maybe…but you miss my point. You shouldn’t have to protect yourself…you shouldn’t even be put in a situation where you would need to,” Alec answered as he suddenly laid a gentle hand on Cas’s wrist, “You should be hidden away…cherished and locked away like all precious art.”

            If Cas was human, he was sure he would feel sick to his stomach. He tried to move his hand away, but Alec hand tightened around Cas’s wrist.

            “You’re disgusting,” Cas whispered.

            Alec only smiled in response as he said, “But I guess I should be grateful for the Winchesters’ carelessness. I have you now, and I’ll be sure to fix all of those mistake.”

            Cas abruptly jerked his wrist out of Alec’s hold and shot up from the chair, “You do not have me, and we are done with your games,” Cas spoke sharply. Sam and Dean immediately stood up in response, and started to move towards Cas, when Alec stood up as well. This in turn prompted every single person in the restaurant to stand up and aim countless guns…at Sam and Dean. Cas paled and his body started to tense in that familiar way it always does when he starts to feel trapped.

            “Wha… what is this,” Cas demanded.

            “This is me calling the shots from now on. They all work for me, and they will shoot if I tell them to,” Alec answered. Alec pulled a large jewelry box from his pocket. He opened it and took out what look like a steel collar with some strange angel warding engraved on it. Just like all of the victims’ bodies, the warding was Enochian language he did not recognize. That meant Alec was the one killing those poor humans here… but why?

            Alec opened the collar and started to walk towards Castiel. Cas instinctively took a step back, causing Alec to pause in his approach. “Put this on, Castiel. Now,” he demanded. When Cas didn’t move right away, Alec gave an annoyed sigh before suddenly lifting a gun from his other pocket and aiming in Sam’s and Dean’s direction. Cas didn’t have a chance to react before the gun went off, the Winchesters and Cas all bodily flinched at the sound. The bullet had hit the bar in between Sam and Dean, only an inch away from each of their heads.

            “Put the collar on, Castiel,” Alec demanded, gun still held at Sam and Dean, “I will not ask again.” Cas hurriedly rushed forward and took the collar from Alec’s hands and secured it around his neck. Immediately, he felt his grace react to the collar in a strange way. Cas had assumed it would just block Cas from accessing the grace, but Cas had grew familiar with that feeling, and he was not feeling that right now with this collar around his neck. Instead it felt the whole composition of his grace was changing for this collar, and this scared Cas.

            “There now, that’s not so bad, is it,” Alec asked, once again speaking to Cas as if he was a child. Alec took a step toward Cas, but Cas took another step backward. This seemed to only amuse Alec. Suddenly Alec stopped, and he appeared to be thinking about something before calling out, “Hey, Spencer, remind me again what happens after someone sells their soul for a deal.”

            One of the men holding a gun on Dean laughed before answering, “They seal it with a kiss, sir.”

            “Ah, yes, that’s right,” Alec answered before suddenly reaching out and taking a firm hold of Cas. Cas didn’t have time to struggle before he was jerked into Alec’s arms and his lips were covered in a firm kiss. Immediately the room erupted with cat calls from Alec’s soldiers, and screams of outrage from Sam and Dean. Cas started to push at Alec’s chest, but the man only tightened his hold around Cas, even when Cas tried punching at the man’s chest. Desperate to get away and forgetting about the collar, Cas placed the palm of his hand over Alec’s heart and gathered his grace to shoot through this monster, but it did not give the desired effect. Instead the collar around his neck grew warm and then there was pain…excruciating pain. It was like Cas was burning from the inside out from holy fire. In a second, Cas was on the floor, screaming and crying in pain. Even though it likely only lasted a few minutes, to Cas, it felt like hours had passed before the pain finally stopped. He could hear Sam and Dean calling his name, but he was unable to answer them as he was still sobbing and gasping for breath. Suddenly Dean’s and Sam’s voice quieted, and a figure squatted down to the floor next to Cas. A hand was petting at his hair when Cas finally heard a voice come through the loud sounds of his gasping for breath.

            “Shh…shh. It’s over now. Shh..,” Alec was saying in a gentle tone, “Shh…you’re okay. I’m sorry that had to happen, angel, but you needed to know what would happen if you use your grace against me.”

            Cas could feel a darkness taking over, and he knew he would pass out soon. Alec’s voice started to come through again, “But this does not need to happen again, right?” He didn’t know how, but he must have answer with a shake of his head, “Very good. Just be my good angel, and that’ll never have to happen again.” The darkness overtook him before Cas had a chance to answer.

 

            The next time Cas was consciously aware, it was by persistent voices calling his name.

            “Cas…. Hey, Cas,” he thought that was Sam’s voice before he heard a second voice.

            “Cas… come on, buddy, open your eyes.”

            Cas’s bodily response was instant. Even if Cas did not have enough awareness to hear or recognize that voice, his body definitely did. Just by hearing Dean’s voice, he immediately knew he was safe. Cas opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of Sam and Dean sitting in front of them. The second Cas opened his eyes, there was the sound of instant sighs of relief. His sight was still fuzzy, but he recognized the blurry forms of Sam and Dean. Cas blinked again, and their surroundings became more clear. They were in a dark concrete room. One wall had metal tables that were bolted to the floor leaning against them. Next to where Cas was laying, there was an empty chair with shackles attached, also bolted to the floor. Cas swallowed as the purpose for this room became clear. Cas looked back at Sam and Dean and noticed both were sitting on the ground and against the wall, each had a wrist restrained by an iron shackle that was bolted to the wall. Cas went to sit up, but immediately fell back to the hard ground, his limbs feeling like jelly.

            “Hey, take it easy, buddy,” he heard Dean said, “we don’t know how that collar affected you.”

            Cas wanted to give a sarcastic response saying he knew exactly what that abomination around his neck did to him, but refrained from doing so. This wasn’t Dean’s fault. Instead, Cas remained silent as he began to drag his body toward the brothers. Once he finally made it to the small space between Sam and Dean, he immediately collapsed against the wall, snugged between the two humans. While he focused on catching his breath he let his head fall down on Dean’s shoulder and his hand grasp Sam’s in a gentle hold, not even feeling embarrassed for needing the comfort. Thankfully, neither of the brothers teased him for it. Instead he felt Sam’s hand give a comforting squeeze. He felt a pressure on his head. If he didn’t know any better he thought he felt Dean give a kiss on his head.

            “I’m going to get us out of here, okay,” Dean spoke gently and reassuring.

            Despite how impossible their current circumstances seemed, Cas decided to draw comfort from that. Dean and Sam have always found a way, and he has never doubted they could. If anyone could get them out of this situation, it was them two. Cas started to say as much but was cut off when the metal door locking them in was suddenly pushed open, and three men stepped through the entry way. It was Alec, the man called Spencer, and a third man that Cas recognized as being one of the men at the restaurant where they were ambushed.

            “Well isn’t this precious,” Alec spoke sarcastically.

            “Why don’t you just cut to the chase as to why we’re here,” Dean answered harshly.

            Alec seemed to perk up as he responded, “Why, Dean, that’s the first good idea I’ve heard out of you yet.” Dean glared but decided not to answer, not wanting to take the asshole’s bait. After another moment of silence, Alec walked closer to the table where Dean could imagine were a creative assortment of torture tools. Alec leaned casually against the table, arms crossed in a relaxed position.

            “It’s really quite simple, Dean. All I need is the weapon… and then you’re free to go,” Alec finished with a smirk.

            Sam and Dean both looked at each other, both looking as confused as the other.

            “What… what weapon,” Sam asked, speaking up for the first time.

            A short laugh escaped Alec before he answered, “Let’s not play games, boys. I want that weapon.” He nodded at the other two men who entered with him, and they started to move toward the trio.

            “Listen to me,” Sam spoke up urgently, “we don’t know what you are talking about.”

            “Then I’ll jog your memory,” Alec answered coldly. He then nodded toward Cas before saying, “Grab the angel.”

            As both men quickly approached, both brothers tensed as Cas instinctively tighten his hold on Sam and Dean.

            “Don’t you touch him,” Dean started but Spencer punched him before he could finish. Cas was startled in letting go of Dean, but did not get a chance to check on Dean before he was being roughly pulled away. Cas struggled and tried to grab for Dean or Sam again, but he was pulled again fully out of their reach.

            “Let him go,” Sam yelled out, “we told you we don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “I’ll kill you! You hear me? I will kill you,” Dean yelled out.

            Alec only rolled his eyes, but ignore the brothers as he watched his men secure the struggling Castiel to the chair. Once the two men moved away from the now secure angel, Alec stepped forward and squatted down so that he was at eye level with the angel.

            “Now, Castiel, I’m sure your situation should be clear by now, but we’ll review just in case. That collar around your neck means you belong to me now, and you answer only to me. When I ask you a question, I expect an answer and I expect it to be the truth,” Alec finished with an expectant look.

            Cas glared at the man as he said, “As we’ve already said… we do not know what you are talking about.”

            Alec let out a long sigh as he placed both hands on Cas’s knees, and let his hands move up to mid-thigh. That nauseous feeling Cas felt the last time he felt this man’s unwelcomed touches returned back with full force as he tried to dislodge the hands, but Alec only tightened his hold.

            “I really don’t want to hurt you, Angel. Just tell me what I need to know. Where is the weapon?” Alec asked softly as he ran his hands up and down Cas’s thighs.

            “Stop touching me,” Cas demanded instead.

            Alec let out another resigned sigh before straightening up so that he was looking down at Cas. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small cylinder silver object. Cas observed that it was like a pen as there was a piece at the top that look like it clicked in and out of place.

            “You should know that I don’t have to wait until the next time you use your grace before I bring that pain back,” Alec said as he looked down at Cas, “all I need to do is to click this, and you get to experience that again and again if I have to,” he warned.

            Cas’s whole body ran cold, and inwardly began to panic. He honestly did not know what this man was talking about. He was about to say as much again, but then he heard Sam speak up behind him, “Is this about the colt? That was stolen from us years ago, we don’t have it.”

            Alec responded with a scoff and an eye roll before answering, “Yes, I know all about the colt you so clumsily lost… and no. The colt is a mere butter knife compare to the weapon I’m speaking of… and you know that.” Alec peered back down at Cas before saying once again, “Tell me where the weapon is.”

            Cas took a shuddering breath, steeling himself, as he said, “I told you. I don’t know what you are talking about.” There was a moment where Alec only looked down on Cas with those chilling, cold eyes; and then the next moment, Cas heard the click.

            Cas ripped out a scream as that excruciating pain returned. It did not stop there either. On and on, the pain would come back for a minute, and would stop long enough for Alec to ask the same question. When both Cas and the brothers scream back the same answer, the pain would come back. Cas swore the pain doubled each time. It was too much. Cas will forever feel ashamed of this, but after what had felt like a whole hour of this, he broke down sobbing. As soon as he got a chance he was begging for it to stop.

            “P-please stop. I don’t know. I swear I don’t know of any other weapons,” he managed to  choke out through the sobs. Instead of clicking the device once again, Alec surprised Cas by squatting down so that he was once again at Cas’s eye level. Cas bodily flinched when the man suddenly threaded his fingers through Cas’s hair.

            “Shh… shh. I know… I know, angel,” Alec spoke gently, but loud enough for Sam and Dean to hear me.

            “Excuse me,” Sam had said at the same time his brother cursed out, “You sick son of a bitch.”

            Cas only blinked in confusion and could only say, “W-what?”

            Alec’s hand drift down from Cas’s hair until he was cupping his cheek before saying, “I knew within the first five minutes you we’re telling the truth… but this little… session… wasn’t for you, now was it. It was for those two hicks behind you.”

            There was a short moment of silent before Sam started yelling, “We told you we don’t have any kind of special weapon.”

            “We’re not lying, you son of a bitch,” Dean yelled.

            Alec straightened up once again to turn his cold stare on the Winchester brothers, dropping his hand from the shocked, speechless Castiel’s cheek for the moment.

            “Oh, there is a weapon, and you _do_ have it. You may not realize it, but you do have it. And if I were you, I would start working on realizing it real soon because I promise you, I’m only getting started on dear Castiel here,” Alec finished as he let a knuckle gently caress Cas’s cheek, who promptly jerked his face away, mumbling as he did so. Alec turned his head sharply at Cas, “I’m sorry, what was that, Angel?”

            There was only the sounds of gasps as Cas continued to try and catch his breath, but then finally said, “I said you can go to hell,” Cas looked up to glare at Alex before continuing, “and I will personally see to it. For the rest of your miserable life, I’m going to be watching you, and the second that excuse of a soul leaves your body, I will escort you to the deepest pit of hell myself. You’ll even be a present for the King of Hell… he’ll be thrilled.”

            There was a shocked silence when suddenly Alec reared back and backhanded Cas hard enough to where Cas was sure the chair would have toppled over if it weren’t bolted to the floor. Then Alec surprised the three by suddenly extracting a key from his pocket and starting to unlock the restraints holding Cas in the chair.

            “Clearly you three need more initiative,” Alec said as he undid the last of the restraints. Cas was yanked out of the chair, and into Alec’s arms.  Before he had a chance to push the man away, his mouth was covered with a bruising kiss. If he didn’t feel so weak, he would have definitely struggled some more, but the collar had taken a lot out him. Suddenly, Alec shoved Cas away from him and threw him several feet away. Cas could do nothing but fall to the ground. He looked up to see Alec walking towards him as he started to undo his tie.

            “And I think I’ll kill two birds with one stone with this one. Seems like you still need to learn who you belong to now, Castiel,” Alec answered as he threw away a tie and moved on to rolling up his dress sleeves.

            Cas paled and immediately began scooting his body back and away from Alec, but his movements were too slow. Two large steps, and Alec was advancing on him.

            “Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Cas heard Dean yell.

            “Stay away from him,” Sam yelled.

            Alec reached down and yanked Cas back up onto his feet, only to shove him again. This time Cas crashed into one of the tables against the wall, and only had time to grab onto the table to hold himself up before Alec was on him again. This time crowding into his space, and lifting him onto the table, using his body to keep Cas’s legs spread. Cas immediately started to shove at Alec chest, but the man was unmovable. The torture had wiped Cas of almost all of his strength for the moment. There was a loud ripping sound, and suddenly Cas’s dress shirt fell open exposing his chest. Cas barely felt the panic start to bubble up before he felt that monstrous man’s hands on his body. Cas shoved again before yelling, “No! Stop it!” He knew that Sam and Dean were screaming as well, but the roar in his ears muffled everything except his panic gasps of breath. The dressed shirt was yanked down Cas’s arms, and a tightening feeling told him Alec had tied his arms behind his back.

            “It doesn’t have to be like this, you know,” Alec whispered in his ear, “say you’ll behave, and I can be gentle.”

            “NO!” Cas screamed, and tried to jerk his leg up in an attempt to knee the other man, but a grip on his knee stopped him from doing so. Cas let out a sob, as he started to wildly struggle. He couldn’t tell what limb did what, all he knew is he was doing everything he could to jostle this man’s hands off of him. That’s when Cas noticed that what he had thought was panic bubbling up inside of him, was instead an actual warmth of energy, that was not his grace…but similar. He realized too late that whatever it was, was about to try and leash out on Alec. He only had time to scream “no” again when suddenly there was a loud noise as Cas felt whatever this grace was burst from Cas, flinging Alec to the other side of the room.

            When the glowing grace finally faded from his eyes, Cas blinked down at himself in confusion. Where had that come from? It definitely wasn’t his own grace. Cas knew his grace like it was another part of his body, and knew when it was being used or not. The second odd thing was that whatever that grace was, the collar around his neck did not react to it. Cas look up to see that the brothers were both hunched over. They had their eyes closed and were covering their ears, but were not harmed. Cas finally looked over to Alec, who was being helped up by his men. Cas heard the man Alec called Spencer ask, “What the hell happened, Alec? How are you even still alive?”

            Alec did not answered, and instead glared at Cas, “What was that, Castiel?” he demanded.

            “I don’t…I don’t know,” Cas answered truthfully.

            Alec took a few steps toward Cas before saying, “Do not lie to me, angel.”

            “I said I don’t know,” Cas snapped back.

            There was a beat of silence before Alec suddenly pulled out that device from his pocket and said, “Let’s see if this still works.” Before Cas could do anything else, Alec pressed the button, and that excruciating pain was back. But this time, Alec didn’t stop after a few seconds. He didn’t even stop after a few minutes. The pain went on and on, and all Cas could do was scream and sob in the response. His screams were so loud, they drowned out the noise of Sam and Dean screaming at Alec.

            “You’re going to kill him,” Sam screamed.

            “Stop! He doesn’t know, you sick son of a bitch,” Dean screamed.

            Alec ignored the two brothers, but did press the button to stop the pain. Cas didn’t stop screaming though, too overwhelmed by the pain that he hadn’t noticed it stop. Alec glared down at the heap that was Castiel before muttering, “Excuse me,” and then stormed out of the room, quickly followed by his men. Cas’s voice had finally went silent from pure exhaustion, but a sudden nauseous feeling had Cas leaning over to throw up before finally blacking out.

 

            As soon as Alec stepped outside of the torture he let his control slip. There was a table in the middle of the room with various different documents, likely in a certain order. At that moment he did not care, and let himself flip the table over in his anger.

            “FUCK!” he screamed out.

            There was a notable silence before the only one of his men who was not scared of him spoke up, “How was his grace able to escape? That collar is supposed to turn his own grace against him,” Spencer stated.

            “I know that,” Alec answered shortly.

            “How are you even alive,”  Spencer asked.

            “I DON’T KNOW!” Alec screamed.

            There was another deafening silence before Alec kicked at the table he flipped over, and let out another frustrated scream… and then pause as a picture of one of the psychics he tortured stared back up at him from the floor. He picked the picture up, and continue to stare until he finally spoke up, “Spencer… do we still have the recording of the third psychic?” Spencer nodded his head, and went to grab the recording.

            Ten minutes later Alec, Spencer, and a few of his other men stood in front of a TV as screams of pain came from the speaker. Alec flash forward to the last five minutes of the recording. It revealed a young woman, her form shaking and covered in blood, who was quietly muttering a sentence, again and again. Like a broken record she kept saying, “Two brothers, an angel, and a formidable weapon could be your beginning… or your end… humanity’s grace.” Alec paused it, hit rewind, and replayed that last part… humanity’s grace.

            “So wait… what just happened in there… that wasn’t the angel’s own grace?”

            “No, or he would have triggered the collar,” Alec answered.

            “If that was the so called formidable weapon,” Spencer started skeptically, “then you would be dead right now.”

            Instead of getting angry again, Alec answered thoughtfully, “The collar is probably the only reason why I am still alive.”

            There was another moment of silence before Spencer finally said, “So we found it… we’ve finally found it,” this time the awe was present in his voice.

            Alec finally let himself smile as he said, “Let’s go let them know the good news then."

 

            Sam and Dean looked up at Alec and his men as they burst into the room for the second time that night. Their panic only increased when they noticed the pleased smile gracing Alec’s face. Alec squatted down to the still passed out form of Castiel and let his hand once again caress Cas’s face, as he said, “It really is a wonder how oblivious you boys have been to what a treasure this one is.”

            Dean jerked aggressively at the shackle keeping him chained to the wall, and growled out, “Leave him alone you freak.”

            Alec only scoffed in amusement as he stood back up, and the arrogant amusement on his face only bothered the brothers even more.

            “You know what you hunters problem is,” Alec stated conversationally, “you don’t have any imagination.” He walked over to a table and began to pack away his tools as he continued, “Every time a monster comes up, you only think of one thing… kill, kill, kill. You’re like a bunch of trained monkeys,” he finished that last part with an angry growl.

            “You never think outside of the box. Never think about how you can use those monsters to better this pathetic excuse of a world… or your fragility,” he finished packing away his tools and tossed the bag to Spencer before continuing, “but fortunately for you… there are those who are intelligent, who can think outside of the box, like me, for instance. I mean, use those limited brains of yours and just imagine how different this world could be if we let loose a monstrous plague.” There was a silence as if he was waiting for an answer from the brothers before saying, “No? Can’t do it? Well fortunately for you I can imagine it. Not only can I imagine it… I can create it.” He looked down at Cas and let a small smile cross his face as he finished with, “and  this one is going to help me do it.”

            Cas chose that time to whimper in pain as he slowly blinked his eyes opens. His vision must have been blurry as he blinked several times before focusing his eyes on Dean.

            “Dean,” he managed to whimper out.

            Dean did not get a chance to respond as Alec interrupted with, “This angel belongs to me now, and he’ll be coming with me.” He nodded at Spencer and his other subordinate, and both instantly walked over, grabbed the now weakened angel, and began dragging Cas towards the door.

            “What do you want us to do with them, boss,” one of the men asked as he nodded towards Sam and Dean.

            Alec paused long enough to say, “Leave them. They’ll die eventually,” and then proceeded in dragging Cas towards the door. By this time Cas became aware enough to noticed that he was being dragged and Sam and Dean were calling his name in increasing alarm. Cas immediately began to struggle, ignoring the protest his limbs were screaming at him. It didn’t help, if anything it prompted the other men in helping Alec drag Cas away from the brothers. This time Cas was screaming as he increased his struggles when he noticed they were passing through the open door way. Cas managed to wrench one of his hands out of the hold of one of the men and hold it towards the brothers and screamed, “DEAN!” But one of the men responded by reaching down to punch Cas, knocking him out.

            “CAS!” Sam and Dean screamed one more time, but it was futile because their friend slipped through the doorway and the iron door slammed shut behind him. They didn’t stop though. They continued to scream for help while they tugged at the chains that restrained them until their wrists bled. It didn’t do any good though, and days later they found themselves hunched over in exhaustion. Their voices were gone because they had screamed themselves hoarse, and the blood on their wrists had long crusted over. The dark circles under their eyes showed that neither had gotten any sleep, and it was starting to catch up to them as both sets of eyes were fluttering as they tried to fight the sleep that was coming.

            “Wow,” a voice suddenly startled the brothers, “you Winchesters are in a pickle now.” Sam and Dean looked up and was surprised to see Billie, smirking down at them.

            “I feel like I should take pictures. The joy it’ll bring me when I need some cheering up will be priceless,” Billie continued with her usual smugness. Neither brother said anything, their tired brains not comprehending what they were seeing, as they only blinked up at Billy in a daze. When neither brother said anything, Billie let out an annoyed sigh, “Honestly, you two are no fun like this.” She snapped her fingers, and it was like it sent an electric jolt through the brothers as they both gave an involuntary jerk. They looked at each other and then down at themselves in surprise as they were suddenly the very picture of health. Every cut, scrape, and pain had faded away like it was never there in the first place. Their hunger disappeared as if they hadn’t just went three days without food. The dark circles and the heaviness around their eyes disappeared as they were replaced with the feeling of alertness and energy, as if they had done nothing but sleep and was fully rested. Sam was the first one to speak.

            “I-I don’t understand, Billy, why are you,” Sam suddenly paused as he felt the blood drain from his face, “ar-are we dead?”

            Billie scoff as she let herself cross her arms into a more relax state before saying, “Unfortunately no. Believe me, it was not my decision, but apparently death was not in the cards for you two… not yet anyways.”

            There was another silence as Dean glared suspiciously at Billie, so Sam spoke up again, “S-so you’re helping us?” he question in disbelief.

            Billie roll her eyes before answering, “Of course not… I’m helping the world. It’s just unfortunate that it means saving your butts.”

            “Why don’t you just cut to the chase, and tell us why you are really here,” Dean finally snapped.

            “Fine,” Billie stated casually before continuing, “I’m here because Alec’s little plan cannot happen… he will literally destroy the world if he is successful.”

            “Then what are you doing hanging around here… go stop the asshole,” Dean snapped again.

            “Because I cannot interfere,” Billie answered simply.

            “Then what are you calling this,” Dean pressed.

            “Following orders,” Billie finally snapped, but continued with, “my orders are to help you escape here, so you two can go after him. It has to be you that stops him, no one else.”

            “Why is it that the reapers care so much about what Alec is planning?” Sam asked, still suspicious of Billie’s intentions.

            Billie let out an annoyed sigh as she stated, “I shouldn’t have to tell you that the balance of our world… our reality… is held together by a very fragile thread. If Alec’s plan of making the monsters the majority, rather than the minority, is successful; it will snap that thread and our reality will be destroyed. Obviously, we cannot let that happen.”

            “Alec shouldn’t even want this either, he’s human too,” Sam answered, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

            “He’s not actually,” Billie corrected, shocking the brothers. When both remain silent, she continued with, “he’s actually a disgraced reaper. That’s why your angel boy had such a hard time reading the Enochian you found on the bodies and that collar…Alec was using ancient reaper language. He’s like the reapers very own Lucifer, not a fan of humanity. So he was… let go… when he became a danger to this world. Though, instead of locking him in a cage in hell, we decided to condemn him to living among humans, powerless, for the rest of his life…  for as many lifetimes we deem sufficient. Unfortunately, he had a lot of followers, so we gave them the same punishment.”

            “So Cas was tortured and abducted because you couldn’t keep one of your reapers in line… and now you want us to clean up your mess,” Dean stated, looking as if he wanted to tear Billie’s throat out.

            Billie glared at Dean as she said, “Your angel was abducted because Alec thinks the halo is the weapon that will terrorize and defeat humanity. He’s wrong though. It won’t take long for him to figure that out, and what do you think will happen to your precious angel once he does?” Billie taunted cruelly, and couldn’t help but give a pleased smile at the sight of the brother’s tightening their jaws and the glares that they were sending her way. She reached into her pocket and tossed a small item at the brothers, and it hit the concrete floor with a metal clang. They looked down and was surprised to see it was a key.

            “You’ll find your angel in the mountains west from here,” Billie stated before finishing with, “and I don’t have to tell you to hurry right? There’s no telling how precious little time your angel has left,” Billie taunted. Dean’s head snapped back up, ready to lash out at her again, but was not surprised to see she had disappeared.

            Ten minutes later the boys found themselves stumbling out of an abandoned warehouse just outside the town where all of the victims were being dumped. That meant they were only a half day’s walk away from the motel where Dean’s baby was left abandoned. Dean slapped Sam’s shoulder before heading in the direction of his car and saying, “Come on. Let’s go get our Cas back… and make those sons of bitches pay.” Sam only smiled as he watched his brother purposefully walked towards where Baby would be, and could only imagined what gory plans his brother had for when they found the people holding Cas. He almost felt sorry for them… almost.


	4. Chapter 4

Cas knew it must have only been a few days since he was taken away from the Winchester’s, a week at most; but it felt like it had been months. It felt like days upon days that Cas was locked away in this room with nothing but a white screen. That white screen being the main feature of Alec’s new flavor of torture. That screen and that infuriating clock. A small click and the screen turned on at the same time as the clock next to it started to count down from 90 seconds. Cas let out a shuddering sob as he tensed his body for the pain he knew was about to come. The sound of laughter provided a momentary distraction as Cas let himself pay attention to the next little surveillance video that Alec somehow got his hands on. The man must have been watching them for a while because he had videos that were as far as 6 months ago. This video was of the Winchesters and Cas walking away from an ice cream stand. Despite the pain that he knew was coming, Cas couldn’t help but smile as the memory resurfaced.

            _Flashback:_

_Cas gave a groan of appreciation as he tasted his mint chocolate chip ice cream from the plastic spoon. A pair of chuckles greeted him as he moved closer to Baby._

_“I’ve never seen anyone love ice cream as much as you, Cas,” Sam teased._

_Dean shook his head with a fond smile as he said, “Of all the things that your angel taste buds will allow you to taste, it had to be ice cream.”_

_“I don’t tease you about your obsession with pie, Dean; or your smoothies, Sam,” Cas stated with a halfhearted glare._

_“Hey,” Dean stated in mock offense, “pie is nothing to make fun of. Pie is like getting a bite full of sex.”_

_Cas blushed but rolled his eyes, “Now I think you’re the one with the weird obsession.”_

_Dean merely lifted a single eyebrow and let another teasing smile cross his face as he said, “Oh, yeah, you pick out a favorite ice cream flavor yet?”_

_Cas blush some more as he defensively said, “No…I haven’t tried all of the flavors yet.” Cas’s blush deepened as that only brought more laughter from the Winchesters._

            Cas’s whole body jerked as the excruciating pain tore Cas from the fond memory, and he screamed out loud as he writhe his body in the hard chair. Throughout the screams you could hear body wracking sobs being wrenched from Cas. Any outsider would probably believe Cas was crying from the pain, but they would be wrong. He was crying because these excruciating sessions with Alec’s surveillance videos only reminded Cas of what he has lost. Which, he imagined, was the point. The pain finally stopped, but when he could hear the count down from the abominable screen, he began to cry some more. Would this vicious, torturous cycle ever end?

 

            Several hours of the torture has finally passed, and Cas knew it was almost time for Alec to come in to give his usual offer. Cas knew because the only window in the room allowed Cas to know whether it was day or night. He imagined Alec chose this room because of this very window. The man wanted Cas to have something that will help him look forward to the visits from Alec. Cas wasn’t dumb, and could easily tell what Alec was attempting here. He wanted Cas to associate pain with anything having to do with the Winchesters, and gentleness and pleasure with anything having to do with Alec. That very fact made Cas’s stomach roll.

            Cas jumped when he heard the timer starting to count down. Another surveillance video must have played without him realizing. Helpless, Cas started to gasp for breath, and when the pain came, he screamed again. It went on and on, a lot longer than the previous times. He was sobbing now, in between the screams, and half expected this to be the time he actually dies. Suddenly, a hand touched his cheek, and Cas flinched away; surprised at both the touch and that the choker had turn off at some point.

            “Shh… shh… it’s okay, it’s over now. I’m here… I've got you, angel.”

            Cas almost let himself believe this was Dean’s voice, but then he opened his eyes to be greeted with the cold blue eyes of Alec. His body’s response was instant. One second he was sitting up, the next he was hunched over the side of his chair as much as his restraints would allow, as his stomach attempted to empty itself. Except there was nothing to empty, so Cas was left with painful dry heaves.

            “Oh, look at what a mess you are,” he heard Alec say, his tone gentle once again as if he was talking to a child. A hand threaded through Cas’s hair as he was pulled to sit up again. “Those Winchesters will, quite literally, do nothing but bring you pain. There’s no need to put yourself through that, huh?”

            “Erase them from your mind… never even think of them again, and I promise you’ll never feel pain again… only pleasure,” Alec continued, this time gently nudging Cas’s thighs apart. A hand began to creep up his thigh when Alec said, “I can make you feel good, I can take care of you. All you have to do is say that you're mine.”

            That hand was already at mid-thigh, and was creeping even closer towards Cas’s crotch. He closed his eyes, willing himself to ignore this man’s touches, and instead focused on where he knew he always felt safe… Dean. He focused on Dean’s face, his teasing smiles, those green eyes. He focused on how his righteous man’s rough and tumble ways contrasted so much with that gentle soul inside. Focused on how he just knew that those rough, hunter hands would be so gentle on his body.

            The hand on his thigh finally reached Cas’s crotch and gave a gentle squeeze as firm lips covers his own. Before Cas could retaliate, the lips were gone but the hand remained as he heard the whisper, “Say you're mine.”

            “Dean,” Cas whimpered out instead.

            Immediately the hand on his crotch tightened to a painful grip, ripping a cry of pain from Cas as the hand in his hair tightened its hold and jerked back, and Cas was once again looking into Alec’s furious eyes.

            “What the hell was that,” Alec forced out with a vicious tone.

            Cas could not help but laugh at Alec’s response, but he winced when Alec only made his grip on Cas’s groin even tighter.

            “I said what the hell was that, Castiel.”

            Cas gave an amused huff before finally saying, “I do not belong to anyone… not even to the Winchesters… to Dean. They don’t take my loyalty, I let them have it. And if something was going on between Dean and I, it would be because I let him have my body. And you know what else? I’d even scream for him because I can promise you that there is no person or thing that could take care of me the way I know Dean can.”

            Alec was silent as those enraged eyes stared into Cas’s own defiant ones. Cas didn’t have to wait long before Alec lashed with another backhand across Cas’s already bruised face.

            “Watch your mouth, Angel,” Alec warned.

            “Go to hell,” Cas shot back.

            Alec backhanded Cas again, and before he had a chance to recover, the collar was triggered again. Cas’s raw throat protested as he screamed and sobbed in pain again. This time the pain definitely went longer than the previous sessions, and Cas took pride in knowing that this must mean he really pissed Alec off. When the pain finally stopped, Cas could tell he was seconds away from blacking out. He was jerked back into a momentary alertness when a hand grabbed his hair and yanked it back so that Cas had to look up at Alec.

            “You’re making this harder than it has to be, Castiel,” Cas’s scalp was relieved of the painful grip as Alec moved his hand down to firmly grip Cas’s chin as he continued with, “But it’s no matter. I will be back tomorrow, and I promise you it will only get worse from here,” a thumb gently stroke Cas’s bottom lip before the other man said softly, “And this won’t stop… not until you accept that you are mine.” The hands finally left Cas’s face, and he heard Alec start to walk away.

            “Never,” Cas whispered.

            The footsteps paused for a moment, but continued and the sound of the metal door slamming shut signaled to Cas he was alone again. The next second, he finally succumb to the darkness.

 

            Cas slowly blinked his eyes open, and immediately flinched them closed again when he was bombarded with bright sunlight. Cas turned his head away, as he waited for the black spots to disappear from behind his eyelids. After a moment Cas slowly opened his eyes, and looked around to confirmed that he was still being held in the same room. Cas slowly looked towards the window and was surprised to see the sun high in the sky and shining bright. Cas must have slept throughout the night. That’s when all thoughts paused, and he blinked down at his body in surprised. Slept… he had slept. Not just briefly blacked out, but had actually fallen asleep.

            Cas closed his eyes and hesitantly, as he was worried about triggering the collar, reached out to his grace. There were a few more surprises. The first of which was that Cas did not trigger the collar by reaching out to the grace. The second surprise was that Cas was dangerously low on grace. The third was that there appeared to be no damage to Cas’s vessel’s vitals, but he still had minor scrapes and bruises on his person. It was as if his grace instinctively knew when to use it and when to conserve it in this current situation. Cas came to the alarming realization that his grace was not regenerating itself.

            That lead to Cas to his fourth surprise, and that was discovering how the collar works. He had originally thought that the collar was just turning his grace against him, but it instead was literally ripping away his grace in an excruciating and painful manner every time that collar was triggered. Cas suspected that Alec did not know this about the collar, otherwise he would not be using it in the first place if it would endanger the grace he coveted for his plan. Cas also came to the realization that if he was passively healing himself without triggering his grace, than that meant there were certain things he can do without having to double over in pain. Cas wondered if he could do anything that did not involve using his grace in defense.  The sound of the metal door being dragged across the concrete floor signaled to Cas that someone was entering the room. Looks like Cas will get a chance to test the theory.

            Finally the person who entered walked into Cas’s line of sight with a bottle of water, and a tray of food. Cas noted it was Spencer. The man didn’t say anything, or even look in Cas’s direction, as he kept on walking to a table next to one of the walls. Cas watched quietly as the man set the drink and food down on the table, and proceeded to drink from the bottled water. Cas swallowed as he watched, suddenly thirsty. His grace must not feel his need for water was a dire emergency as of yet.

            “Please,” Cas forced himself to say softly.

            The man looked up, and appeared briefly shocked that Cas was talking to him, before steeling his face and glaring at Cas as he said, “What is it?”

            “It’s just… .the water… can I have some, please, I really need to drink something,” Cas answered.

            The man only snorted before saying, “Yeah, I’m not falling for that. You’re an angel, you don’t need water.”

            “It’s the collar… it’s affecting my grace. Please… I’m so thirsty,” Cas responded.

            “And who’s fault is that? The only person keeping you in that chair is yourself,” the man stated cruelly.

            Cas forced himself to hold back his rage at that comment, and decided to continue with his pretense.

            “I’ve thought a lot about what could happen next… and I can’t take anymore. I don’t want to feel any more pain.”

            That must have grabbed Spencer’s attention as he turned to fully face Cas, and wasn’t subtle with the way he was checking out Cas’s body. Cas forced down the nausea that he could feel coming up due to this pretense, and pushed forward with an innocent head tilt as he said, “Please? I’ll be good.”

            Finally, Spencer picked up his water bottle and began walking towards Cas, his eyes now darkened to a heated gaze that made Cas want to be sick.

            “You’ll be good, huh,” Spencer repeated, his voice husky.

            Spencer gripped Cas’s hair, and like Alec had done, yanked Cas’s head back so that he was forced to look up at him. Before Cas could complain about the rough treatment, the water bottle was place at his lips. Fresh, cold water rushed into Cas’s mouth and down his sore throat, bringing instant relief. Spencer then tilted the water bottle too high, and suddenly the water came rushing down too fast, causing Cas to choke. He quickly moved his mouth away as he coughed up the excess water in his mouth. Through his coughing, he heard Spencer give a huff of amusement before starting to walk away.

            “Wait,” Cas hurriedly called out and when the other man paused he said, “I’m hungry.”

            Cas heard what he thought was an annoyed sigh as he started back towards the table that had food before Cas quickly stop him again, “Wait!”

            This time Spencer glared at him as he said, “Do you want the food or not?”

            “It’s just that,” Cas tugged at his wrist, “I can’t eat like this. Please remove the cuffs?”

            This earned Cas a suspicious glare and Cas quickly tried to appear as small as possible as he said, “I won’t do anything… I swear. Besides, the collar won't let me, right?” he asked, hoping Spencer would take the bait. There was a moment where Spencer’s suspicious glare hardened, but then he sighed again and started to head back to Cas, tugging a ring of keys from his pocket. Spencer unlocked the cuffs, and roughly pulled Cas to his feet.

            “Can you walk?” Spencer asked.

            Cas took a step closer and laid a hand on Spencer’s shoulder as he said, “Yes, thank you,” before ramming his knee up into Spencer’s groin. Spencer howled as he double over in pain. Cas reared a fist back, punching the man square in the jaw, and Spencer finally fell down onto the concrete floor. He saw Spencer roll over to face the door, and Cas caught on he was about to call for help. Cas quickly dropped down to cover Spencer’s mouth with one hand, and with the other he place two fingers to the man’s temple, and Spencer was out like a light. Cas finally let himself breathe a sigh of relief, his theory was correct. Cas started to stand up but was surprised when doing so made himself feel faint, and he let himself drop back down to the ground. Confused, Cas reached out to his grace, and was surprised to see that he had considerably less grace then he had just a few minutes ago. He hadn’t realized how much grace it took to knock someone out. He would have to be more careful with his grace from now on, and only use it when absolutely necessary.

            Cas checked Spencer for a weapon, and was pleased to find his angel blade. Cas quickly grabbed his blade and the man’s hunting knife, and decided not to bother with the door, and instead headed for the window. He unlocked the window latches, and began to lift the window up. Suddenly, an ear splitting, shrill sound filled the room, and Cas was sure the whole building. Almost instantly a heavy metal panel dropped down, sealing the window. Cas let out a curse as he pounded his fist against the glass in frustration. The door to the room burst open, and three of Alec’s soldiers set upon Cas.

            Without hesitation, Cas firmly gripped the hunting knife and threw it at the closest soldier. The knife imbedded itself into the man’s neck, and the soldier immediately dropped to the ground as he choked on his blood. Cas did not have a chance to react again before strong arms wrapped around his body, pinning his arms down, while the third soldier quickly approached. Once again, Cas acted without hesitation as he reared his head back onto the man’s nose behind him, and was satisfied when he heard that crunching sound of bones of breaking. The man screamed in pained as he dropped his hold on Cas just in time for Cas to catch the fist flying at his face. He quickly grabbed ahold of the female’s arms, and snapped the bones in her arm in two. The second she let out her scream, Cas shoved his palm into her nose and up, sending her bones directly into her brain. She instantly fell to the ground, dead. Cas heard movement behind him, so he quickly grabbed his knife and moved into a fighting stance. That’s when he heard the distant sound of a click, and then the collar was triggered. Cas immediately fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The pain was gone almost as quickly as it came, but it gave the other soldier the advantage he needed. A sudden pressure in between his shoulder blade told him a knee was pinning him down, as a hand gripped the fist Cas was holding his angel blade with. The hand started slamming Cas’s fist back down onto the concrete floor repeatedly, until Cas had to let go due to the pain. The weight on his back let off, and Cas started to push himself up with shaky arms, ready to continue fighting despite the lack of weapon; but he didn’t get chance too because there was a sudden sharp pain on the back of his head before he blacked out once again.

 

            When Cas finally came to, it was to the sounds of vicious growls, and a throbbing head ache. Cas groaned at the pain as he slowly opened his eyes. He was greeted with the sight of Alec’s soldiers struggling with dragging in a snarling and growling wolf. Cas could only blink in surprise, as scenario upon horrible scenario of what could possibly be the purpose of this wolf being here flashed through his mind. A pair of large hands grasped his shoulders in a strong grip, and Cas visibly startled at the surprise. The hands responded by pushing down on his shoulders in order to keep Cas seated in the chair, before beginning to give Cas’s shoulders a massage.

            “Welcome back, Cas,” Alec’s voice sounded from above Cas’s head, “I was starting to get worried that Henry hit your head too hard.”

            Cas glared at the wall before him as he tightened his lips shut, refusing to say anything. Above him, he heard Alec give a disappointed sigh as he removed his hands from Cas’s shoulders to walk around the chair and face Cas. Despite the disappointed sigh Cas had just heard Alec make, the man appeared to be rather amused. He was enjoying this.

            “And here I was thinking today would go a lot different for us, Castiel,” Alec stated.

            “There is no us,” Cas growled out.

            Alec continued on though, as if Cas hadn’t said anything, “And you killed two of my people…I can’t let that go without punishment,” he finished.

            Cas finally looked away from Alec to look to the commotion in the corner of the room. The men were now strapping down the snarling wolf onto a metal table. One of the men must have tightened a strap too roughly, and the wolf yelped, causing Cas to flinch at the poor animal’s pain. Alec followed Cas’s line of sight, and smirked in response.

            “Yes, we learned about your fondness of animals early on in our surveillance of you and the Winchesters’. We noticed those ridiculous notebooks you never put down, and those times you sneaked away to the wild life refuges when you thought no one was paying attention.” Alec gave a small smile as he walked closer to Cas to gently stroke a hand down his cheek before saying, “Really, it’s adorable.”

            Cas jerked away from Alec’s hand and went back to glaring at the wall. On the inside, though, he was worried for the innocent wolf. Alec grabbed Cas’s chin, and forced him to look up.

            “I’m sure you can put two and two together here, Cas, if you don’t start cooperating with me. But it doesn’t have to happen… this is all in your control. ” Alec stated gently, adopting his usual manner of speaking to Cas as if he was child.

            “You’re an idiot. It’s just an animal,” Cas answered harshly, hoping to deter Alec from following through with hurting the wolf. Instead, Alec let out a laugh before squatting down so that he was at Cas’s line of sight.

            “It’s cute that you think that would have work,” Alec stated, squashing Cas’s plan, before continuing with, “but like I said: this doesn’t have to happen. All you have to do is be mine, and this can all go away.”

            Cas spit in his face instead. Alec’s jaw tightened as he visibly held in his rage to wipe the glob of spit that had landed on cheek. He stood up slowly before pulling his fist back and punching Cas.

            “Fine, we’ll do this your way,” before turning and walking to the table next to the one holding the wolf. Alec paced back and forth along the table, as he gently ran his fingers over the weapons, appearing to be thinking about which weapon to use. It didn’t take long before Alec picked a wooden bat up. He swung it back and forth in practice swings, and then, without missing a beat, whirled around and threw the first swing onto the wolf’s defenseless body. Cas flinched at the yelp of pain that came from the wolf. Alec didn’t stop there, swing after swing, he beat on the wolf; and the room was only filled with the sounds of the wolf yelping in pain.

            Cas flinched with each yelp of pain. Cas eyes were squeezed shut, but there were still tears freely flowing down his cheek. The bat came down again, and this time Cas heard a sickening crack right before the wolf let out a long stream of continuous yelps of pain. Alec must have fractured a rib. Cas couldn’t take it anymore.

            “Stop, okay? Just stop!”

            “Oh, I can go on all day, sweetheart,” Alec stated this as he threw down the bat in favor of grabbing a hold of the wolf’s leg. With a single snap, he broke the wolf’s front right leg.

            The wolf’s nonstop yelps of pain only got louder. Cas screamed at Alec to stop some more, but he was ignored. Instead Alec continued on with, “And I won't stop at this wolf,” he snapped the front left leg, “even when this one dies,” he snapped the back right leg, “I’ll only bring in more animals,” he snapped the back left leg, “and this will keep going on until you’ve learned your place.” Alec then grab one of the legs, and lean down to put pressure onto the broken leg. By now Cas could not hear anything but the innocent wolf’s pain… and he could not bear to hear anymore.

            “Okay, alright! You win! Just… _please_ … stop hurting him,” Cas sobbed.

            Alec finally paused in his torture and look coldly at Cas before saying, “The words, Castiel. I want to hear you say them.” Cas let out a sob before opening his mouth, but nothing was coming out. Alec continued, “No? Not ready, yet? That’s fine, there’s plenty more wolves where this one came from,” before unsheathing his hunter’s knife and holding it above his head, ready to bring it down onto the wolf.

            “NO! I’m yours, okay? I’m yours,” Cas finally screamed out.

            Alec paused in his movements, and slowly bringing the knife down. He quickly sheathed the knife before walking over to Cas.

            “Good boy, Castiel… that was beautiful. Now I want you to prove it,” Cas didn’t even have time to think, before Alec’s lips were on his. Cas almost jerked away, but force himself not to in fear of the retaliation that would be set upon the wolf. Instead, Cas forced down the nausea, and open his mouth. He wanted to gagged when Alec  eagerly violated his mouth. After a few moments, Alec finally pulled away to turn back towards the table. He unholstered his gun and aimed it toward the wolf. Cas panicked.

            “Wait! No! I said it! I’m yours,” Cas begged.

            Alec lower his weapon as he frowned down at Cas, “I know, angel, but this wolf wouldn’t survive a day out there now. Best to put him down,” Alec started to aim the gun again, but Cas stopped him again.

            “I can heal him! Please, let me heal him,” Cas pleaded.

            “You can’t heal him, your collar won’t let you.”

            “No, no, I can. If it’s not for an attack, I can still use my grace. It’s how I knocked out Spencer. I used my grace to make him go to sleep,” Cas quickly explained.

            Rather than shock, Cas was surprised to see a smug grin cross Alec’s face, who stated, “I see. Thank you for sharing that.” That’s when Cas realized that he was just manipulated in giving up his only card of defense, but he force himself to worry about it later. Right now, what was more important to Cas was saving the wolf. So Cas instead decided to beg again, “Please let me heal him. I won’t try anything,” he promised.

            “Hmm… very well. Spencer,” Alec looked towards his soldier before saying, “hold a gun at the wolf’s head. If Cas tries anything, shoot it.”

            “You got it boss,” Spencer responded with a smug smile.

            Alec made quick work with the restraints before pulling Cas to his feet. Cas quickly walked over to the wolf, who could do no more than whimper now. Cas leaned forward, and ran a gentle hand over the wolf’s head in a pet before whispering, “Sleep, now, precious. I’ll make it all better now.” With a brief pulse of his grace the angel was sleeping peacefully, leaving Cas free to assess the damage. After a quick onceover, Cas quickly ran a hand over each of the wolf’s injuries, healing them with his grace. When all the injuries were heal, Cas let himself subtly lean against the table for support. After a moment of rest Cas started to undo the straps holding the wolf.

            “Woah! What the hell do you think you doing,” Spencer yelled as he continued to aim his gun to the wolf’s head.

            “I’m carrying him outside. He’s no good to you now, he’s free to go,” Cas answered simply.

            “Boss,” Spencer stated, wanting his confirmation.

            “It’s okay, Spencer,” he stated before turning to the other men in the room and ordering, “accompany Cas and Spencer outside, make sure there is no funny business.”

 

            Ten minutes later Cas was carrying the still sleeping wolf deep into the woods, his escorts following behind him.

            “That’s far enough,” he heard Spencer yell.

            Cas wanted to snap at the man, but decided against it for the wolf’s sake. Instead Cas gently laid the wolf down, and ran his hand over the wolfs head, waking him up. The wolf quickly shot up, and when he spotted the men behind Cas, he immediately began to growl. Cas could hear the clicks of guns being readied, so he moved so that his body was blocking the wolf from sight.

            “Get out of here, precious one.”

            Instead, the wolf whined and licked at Cas’s split lip.

            “Let’s get a move on,” he heard Spencer yell from the back of the group.

            Cas gave the wolf one final pet, and used his grace to will it to run away. The wolf whined and danced around on his feet, before complying and dashing off into the distance.  Cas stood and started to turn back towards the escort group, and that was when he felt it. A gentle warmth that immediately set his nerves at ease. Cas paused and looked in the direction he sensed the feeling coming from. The men must not have liked the pause because he heard the closest one to him say, “Hey, don’t you try anything, halo. Get your ass over here.”

            Cas ignored him, and instead he took a step forward. He recognized that energy. He would know that energy from anywhere. Two pairs of hands grabbed both of his arms, but Cas resisted.

            “Hey, halo, it’s too late to back out now. Time to get back to the boss man.”

            Cas ignored him again because he was focused on that energy he was feeling…more specifically, a soul, and he knew this soul…this soul of a righteous man. For the first time Cas began to feel hope as he let out a huff of relieved laughter. Cas renewed his struggles against the strong grips, but it did not help. The men simply tightened their hold on Cas as they started to drag Cas away, and no amount of Cas digging in his heels slowed the men down. Cas decided to use the only other advantage he had. Cas took a deep breath while he simultaneously drew on as much grace as he dared. With his angelic voice, Cas screamed out.

 

            Some 50 miles away, two hunters were slowly making their way up the mountain, when suddenly a loud scream interrupted their search.

            “DEEEEAAAN!”

            Dean immediately turned toward the direction the yell came from, and decided he recognized that voice.

            “Cas?”


	5. Chapter 5

Dean was running his way through the wooded area. His thighs were screaming at him because he was running up a hill, but he decided to push through. He needed to get to Cas. A firm grip on his shoulder pulled him to a stop.

            “Dean, _stop_ ,” Sam demanded.

            “No, we can’t stop! Cas needs us, Sam!”

            Sam tightened his hold on Dean’s shoulder as he held his free hand up in an attempt to calm Dean down.

            “Okay, okay. I want to find Cas too, but we have to be smart about this.”

            Dean shoved Sam’s hand off his shoulder, and pointed in the direction they heard Cas yell from.

            “We don’t have time for that! Cas, needs us now!”

            “And if we burst in there now, blind and without a plan, we’re going to get ourselves killed, and then there will be no one to help, Cas,” Sam fired back.

            Dean could only glare, beyond frustrated that Sam was right. Dean forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down the adrenaline that was flowing through his body ever since he heard Cas call for him.

            “So what do you think we should do?”

            “Right now we have the advantage of surprise,” he gave Dean a pointed look, “but we won’t have that if we’re rushing through the woods.” Dean only glared in response, but Sam continued with, “We move as quietly and as carefully as we can, and get eyes on the location. We’ll make our plan once we know more about how many people and weapons they have.”

            Dean wanted to argue, but the frustrating thing was, there wasn’t a better plan; and Sam was right about using the element of surprise. He wasn’t going to admit that though. Instead, he nodded his agreement, and the two brothers continued their way up the mountain.

 

 

            The grip holding Cas let go, and Cas dropped to the ground with a groan. Confused, he whirled around, and was surprised at the sight that greeted him. The two men who were dragging Cas, were lying dead on the ground. Both missing large parts of their skulls. Further back were the other men, but Cas couldn’t be sure if they were dead. All were knocked out, though, with a trail of blood running down from their ears. 

            Quickly Cas searched the two dead men for any type of weapon, and was relieved to find hunting knives on both. Cas quickly grabbed the knives and took off in the direction he sensed Dean’s soul before any of Alec’s remaining soldiers came out to check on the commotion. Even when Cas had put a good amount of distance between himself and the base, and even when every muscle was screaming in protest, Cas did not stop running. He knew the sooner he found Dean and Sam, the better.

            Unfortunately the landscape had other plans, as Cas suddenly tripped on a root that was protruding from the ground. He cried out in pain when he landed hard on the ground. Cas tried to sit up, but it must have rained recently because the ground was slippery and muddy. His hands slipped, and this time Cas rolled down a steep hill. He tried to protect his face during each tumble, but he was certain his face was scratched up from the different rocks and sticks he came into contact with. When his body finally stopped rolling, he gave a groan as he rolled over onto his back and sat up. A quick check showed that while he had some new scrapes, and will definitely have some new bruises, there was nothing broken.

            Cas looked up and cursed out loud when he saw how far down the hill had taken him. A look to his left revealed a gently flowing stream of water. Cas slowly stood up, and took a few careful steps towards the stream to test his ankles. Once he was certain nothing was twisted or sprained he hurried over to the stream. Once he was finished with the wall, he looked back towards the hill, and was relieved to see some vine-like branches. He headed over and gave an experimental tug to ensure the sturdiness. Pleased with what he felt he started the slow climb up the hill. Thirty minutes later, Cas was pulling himself up over the edge of the hill. As soon as he was safely over, he collapsed against a tree to catch his breath. He gave himself another minute of a break before he pulled himself back up on his feet. He only took three steps in the direction he was heading to earlier when a hand grabbed his shoulder before shoving him back against the tree.

            “Well, look at what I found here,” it was one of Alec’s soldiers. Cas tried to shove at the man, but he was only shoved even harder into the rough bark of the tree, causing Cas to wince at the rough treatment on his back. “Now, let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. The boss man is already pissed enough as it is,” the man teased. Instead of responding, Cas quickly shot his knee up, kneeing the man in the groin, and used the opening that provided to shove the man away from him. Cas withdrew his knife, but he was tackled to the ground before he got a chance to use it. Cas immediately tried to bring his knife up to stab the man on top of him, but his hand was grabbed and slammed on the ground, dislodging the knife from his hands. The man then wrapped both hands around Cas’s throat, and began to squeeze.

            “Don’t worry, I’ll stop once you pass out,” the man teased.

            Cas tried to pull the hands away from him, but the effort was futile. Desperate Cas began to feel around on the ground around him. When his hands came upon what felt like a large rock, he quickly grabbed ahold of the rock and bashed it up against the man’s head. The man immediately dropped to the ground next to Cas. Cas didn’t give him a chance to get back up, instead Cas rolled over and brought the rock back down onto the man’s skull, again and again, until the rock was covered in blood and he knew the man was dead. After taking a few seconds to catch his breath again, Cas grabbed his knife and stood up to turned around…and stopped when he came nose to barrel of a gun. The man holding the gun must have been the other man’s back-up.

            “Drop the knife,” the man coldly commanded.

            Instead Cas tightened his grip on the knife, and moved into a fighting stance. The man scoffed in amusement and suddenly fired a shot from his gun. Cas jumped when he felt a bullet whiz by his ear.

            “I will not ask again,” the man stated.

            Cas inwardly cursed but began slowly lowering the knife, but he didn’t need to drop it all the way because out of nowhere a wolf jumped onto the man. The man only got one terrified scream out before the wolf ripped out the man’s throat. Cas let himself sigh in relief before the sounds of twigs snapping caught his attention.

            “Hey, Hal! Did you find the angel,” Cas heard a man call out.

            Cas quickly turned back to the wolf, but the wolf must have sensed it was time to hide now because he bounded off as quickly as he came. Cas quickly gathered his knife and the man’s gun, and quickly took off as quietly as he could. He could only hope Sam and Dean did not get hurt by these men.

 

            Sam and Dean paused in their track up the mountain when the sound of a gunshot rang out throughout the mountain. The brothers looked at each other in alarm.

            “That must be Alec’s people shooting. You think we’ve been spotted?”

            “No,” Dean answered, “they wouldn’t have shot off a warning shot, they would have just shot at us.”

            “You think Cas escaped,” Sam asked.

            Dean hoped so because did not like any of the other reasons that gunshot could have been for.

            “Come on, let’s keep moving,” Dean stated instead.

            Ten minutes later Dean stop, and held up a hand to signal Sam to stop as well. Sam looked like he was about to say something, but Dean signaled him to keep quiet. Dean was careful not to make any noise, while he listened carefully for what he had thought he had heard. Sure enough the voice of someone drawing closer to Sam’s and Dean’s location spoke up. Sam and Dean hurriedly hid behind some trees as they listened in on the conversation.

            “Did you locate Hal,” the man was speaking into a walkie talkie

            “Oh, yeah… what’s left of him anyways… looks like an animal got to him.”

            “Fuck.”

            “Yeah, boss man is going to be pissed. I found Tyler dead as well. His skull was bashed in with a rock, had to be the angel. He’s long gone from this area, though. He’s got Hal’s gun too.”

            Both Sam and Dean closed their eyes in silent relief of the fact that Cas was okay, and away from that sick fucker, Alec.

            “Yeah, well, he’ll be even more pissed if we don’t bring his angel back.”

            “Yeah, yeah. Keep your eyes open, looks like he’s heading in your direction. I’m heading your way too, we’ll entrap him that way.”

            At this point Dean looked over at Sam, who understood Dean’s plan without it having to be said. Sam simply nodded in agreement.

            “Oh, Bill just said he’s spotted the angel. We need back up,” the man’s voice from the walkie talkie spoke up again.

            Dean silently counted to three with his fingers.

            “What’s your location,” the man holding the walkie talkie asked.

            Immediately, Sam and Dean came up behind the soldiers, and wrapped an arm around each’s neck. There was a brief struggle, but Sam and Dean ended with twin snaps of the neck, and let the bodies drop to the ground.

            “Hey… Jim. Hey, did you hear me? Jim!”

            Dean quickly picked the walkie talkie up and exaggerated his voice to sound like “Jim” when he said, “Yeah, we’re making our way to you. Hang tight.” Dean slipped the walkie talkie into his pocket before turning to Sam.

            “Let’s go. We need to get to Cas before those guys do.”

            Sam nodded in agreement, and started to head in the location he heard the man say.

 

            Cas cursed as he quietly squeezed into a small, cave like space under some large boulders. He knew almost immediately that he had been spotted, and had ducked out of sight as quickly as he could. He flinched when he heard movement on top of the boulder he was hiding under, and covered his mouth immediately, not wanting any gasps or sounds of breathing to tip off his location.

            “Oh, Angel,” the man on the boulder sung out, “come out, come out, wherever you are.” Instead, Cas closed his eyes and tried to make himself as small as possible in his hiding spot.

            “You’re only delaying the inevitable,” the man teased and continued with, “tell you what: if you come with me now, quietly and willingly, the boss man may be more gentle with you… eventually.” After a few more moments of silence the man spoke up again, “No? Guess we’re doing this the hard away, then. It’ll be fun for me at least,” the man teased.

            Cas heard steps fading away. He waited a few more minutes to be sure the man was no longer right above him. He slowly creeped out of the small space while still remaining low to the ground and under a piece of the boulder that jutted out, ensuring that Cas can remain hidden as he moved around the Boulder. Just as Cas straightened up to move along the taller parts of the boulder, a hand suddenly covered his mouth and pulled him behind a second large boulder. Before Cas had a chance to struggle a familiar face appeared in his line of sight… Sam Winchester. His shoulders sagged in relief, and he could not help but throw his arms around his friend’s neck. Cas let go of Sam to look for Dean, but frowned in confusion when he could not find him. He looked to Sam, who quietly held a finger to his lips before pointing in a direction directly behind Cas. Cas turned around just in time to see Dean sneak up on the man who had been talking earlier. Dean wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, and instantly there was a snap, and the man fell dead to the ground.

            Dean chose that moment to look to the direction Sam and Cas were, and as soon as his eyes laid on Cas, a slow smile spread as he sent a wink in Cas’s direction. Cas could only let out a soft laughter of relief as he returned his righteous man’s smile. That’s when he noticed the movement behind Dean. Cas paled and pointed at the assailant, who was already aiming a gun at Dean, as he screamed, “DEAN!” Dean turned around in time for the gun shot to hit Dean in the abdomen. The rest seemed to go by in a blur as Cas screamed, “NO,” before standing and aiming his gun at the attacker, hitting him in between the eyes. The next thing he knew he was by Dean’s side, and choked out a sob when he saw the mess the bullet made of Dean’s abdomen.

            “No, no, no, no,” Cas sobbed out.

            Dean appeared to try to ‘shh’ Cas’s distress, but it was hard to get anything out in between the gasps of breath and the blood that was filling up his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sam kneel down on the other side of Dean to place pressure on the gunshot wound. That’s when he remembered that he still had a little bit of grace left…just enough to save Dean.

            “Okay, shh, shh, I can fix this,” Cas sobbed out as he placed his fingers onto Dean’s forehead. He closed his eyes and began to draw out the little bit of grace. It was painful, Cas realized as he cried out in pain, to give up the last of one’s grace. It was almost like a living being that did not want to leave, and it was doing all it could to cling onto life. Cas wasn’t going to let that happen though. Cas force himself to stutter out, “S-Sam, cover your’s and Dean’s eyes,” before finally screaming out in pain as all of his grace left his body. Cas’s body wanted to collapse and sleep for a week, but he braced himself on the rock in effort to keep himself from passing out. He look to Dean, and was happy to see that Dean’s abdomen was completely healed. Cas had just enough time to look into Dean’s shock green eyes before a sudden warmth in his chest had Cas clutching his chest in shock.

            “Cas, what is it? What’s wrong,” he heard Dean demand, but Cas was unable to speak. Instead he continue to clutch his chest as his body kept forcing him to take deep breaths. He focused more on the sudden warm energy in his chest; and realized why it was familiar. It was grace growing inside his vessel. He did not have time to further analyze as he felt the energy start growing inside him at rapid rate.

            “C-close your eyes,” Cas warned for the second time.

            “What,” Dean demanded, but was cut off by Cas who screamed, “CLOSE YOUR EYES!”

            Like a water fountain bursting from the ground, this grace burst forward, and as it did he could feel the collar around his neck start to tremble until he felt it shatter and fall from his neck. At the same, this grace was healing every single scrape and injury on his vessel. Despite this being an unknown grace, Cas still knew that this grace was somehow his own. The grace finally faded and receded back inside Cas’s vessel. Cas look down at his body, and confirmed that his vessel was as good as new.

            “Cas, what the hell was that?” Dean asked, the shock evident in his eyes and tone.

            “I… I don’t know,” Cas answered truthfully.

            “That… was humanity’s grace,” a voice suddenly spoke up.

            Cas, Sam, and Dean startled and quickly look in the direction the voice was coming from. At the same time that both Sam and Dean said, “Chuck?” Cas blinked in confusion before saying, “Dad?” All three stared in shock, while Chuck only gave his own amused smile.

            “Hello, Sam… Dean,” his eyes soften just the slightest when he look to Cas, “son.”

            That immediately pissed Dean off as he shot back up to his feet to yell, “Don’t you dare call him son. Where the hell were you when he was being tortured, huh? What the hell kind of father are you that you would just sit back and let that happen to your son?!”

            “I have told you before, Dean, I cannot interfere with free will,” Chuck calmly explained.

            “That’s a shit excuse,” Dean snapped.

            Cas quickly shot up to his feet and placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder, “Dean, you should take it easy. We don’t know if you are fully healed yet.”

            “He’s healed,” Chuck stated happily.

            Cas restrained himself from glaring at his father before tugging Dean towards the edge of the boulder, “Come on, we should all get down from here. We’re too exposed.” Once they were all on the ground and hidden by the big boulder, Sam immediately turn to Chuck as Cas used his new found grace to scan Dean’s body for any injuries, not wanting to take his father’s word on the fact that Dean was healed.

            “What just happened with Cas’s grace,” Sam asked.

            “That was his grace evolving into what I call humanity’s grace. When Cas sacrificed his remaining grace to save a human, you Dean, his grace evolved into what I created Angels for in the first place, humanity’s protection. Your grace evolving to this new level was prophesized, and that it would defeat Alec. Alec believed that you and your grace could be corrupted in order to destroy humanity; it’s why he abducted and tortured you,” Chuck explained.

            “None of which would have happened if you would just be a half decent father,” Dean snapped.

            “That horse is beaten, Dean,” Chuck warned.

            This time Cas did not restrain himself from glaring at Chuck before saying, “Don’t antagonize him,” Cas warned Chuck, who looked mildly impress by the demand.

            “So what does this mean for Cas now,” Sam intervened.

            “It means that Cas,” Chuck had started to answer but paused as he tilted his head in the direction of the boulder, as if he was listening for something. A second later he turned back to Cas, “It looks like you have more company coming this way. We’ll talk later,” and then he disappeared.

            Dean blink at the sudden disappearance before throwing his hands up in frustration before exclaiming, “Great! That’s real great! A lot of help you are!” The boys had just enough time to draw their guns before they were being fired at by Alec’s men. There must have been a soldier they didn’t notice before because from the corner of his eye he saw another small group coming from behind just in time for Cas to warn the brothers as they were being jumped. He heard a clatter, and knew that the guns has been disarmed. Cas quickly flip the one who had jumped him onto his back, and had a palm on the soldier’s forehead before the man could fight back, killing him with his new grace. Cas checked on Sam just in time see the younger Winchester stab into the spinal cord of the man he was fighting. Cas checked on Dean and his heart stop when he looked to see he was ganged up on by two soldiers. Cas quickly picked up the extra machete Dean had brought for him, and quickly approached the man from behind. With one quick slice, Cas cut the soldier’s head off. Dean used that time to turn on the other man, and in an instant Dean had his hunting knife out and sliced through the man’s throat.

            Cas did not know who moved first, but one second he and Dean could only stare at the other, and the next he was in Dean’s arms, in a firm but desperate kiss. In the background he heard Sam’s sarcastic remark, “Really, guys? It’s not like we’re in a middle of a fight or anything.” The two ignored the younger Winchester in favor of a moan-inducing, deeper kiss. Dean was the first to pull away breathless as he leaned his forehead against Cas’s.

            “I love you,” Cas found himself whispering.

            Dean blinked in surprise for only a fraction of a second before he was pulling Cas into his arms again for another deep kiss, that nearly had Cas’s legs turn to jelly.

            “Oh, come on, seriously guys? Make out on your own time,” they heard Sam’s exasperated statement, that they again ignored.

            When Dean finally did pull away from Cas’s lips, he placed another kiss on Cas’s forehead before drawing him into his arms. He nosed Cas’s hair before finally moving his lips to Cas’s ear to whisper, “I love you too.” Then Dean took a full step back before saying, “Now go take care of that asshole, Cas. Sam and I got this here.”

            If it was possible, Cas love for Dean only grew, as he recognize what Dean was doing. Despite how enraged Cas knew Dean to be, Dean was choosing to not storm after Alec himself. Instead, he understood that Cas needed that closure himself. Cas smiled softly and placed a kiss on Dean’s cheek before turning away. With determination he reloaded his gun, and had it aimed and ready as he stepped out from behind the cover of the boulder. He was nearly swarmed by Alec’s men, but he calmly took each one out with a bullet between the eyeballs as he started to head in the direction of the hideout. Behind him, he heard vicious snarls and growls, and was pleased to hear that his wolf friend had returned to the fight.

            When Cas finally  arrived to the hideout, it was to find the front metal door locked. Cas place his palm on the door, and with a single pulse of his new grace, the door fell straight down from its hinges. Cas stepped inside the hide out, and found Alec almost immediately.

            “Ah, Castiel,” Alec stated calmly as he leaned against a table, “have you come back to me?”

            “Not exactly,” Cas answered coldly as he withdrew one of the hunting knives in his possession.

            “Hmm… figured as much,” Alec straightened up from the table, and revealed Cas’s angel blade in his hand.

            “What has happened to your lovely collar,” Alec asked.

            “Oh, it’s in pieces somewhere out there. My grace destroyed it,” Cas stated with a satisfied smirk.

            “Hmm… must be from that mysterious grace. Why don’t we put our weapons down, and I can help you figure this out,” Alec suggested.

            “Oh, there’s nothing to explain. God himself has already explained that it’s meant to protect humanity… and it cannot be corrupted for your needs,” Cas happily explained.

            “Well, then” Alec began with barely contained rage, “you are nothing more than a disgrace now, a nuisance. A nuisance I will get rid of.”

            Alec lunged at Cas with the angel blade, but Cas managed to move away. Cas returned the attack by using his blade to disarm Alec of his only weapon. Alec tried punching this time, but Cas caught his fist just as he used his grace to crush the bones in Alex’s  hand, who screamed in pain. Cas then kneed the man in the balls, who then fell over with another pained scream. Cas shoved the man down to the ground and squatted down, and look directly at his worst nightmare as he said: “Do you remember what I said to you?... Go to hell,” he viciously whispered before firmly placing the palm of his hand on Alec’s forehead. The next second Alec was screaming as Cas’s grace burned his out of his skull. When Alec was finally dead, Cas collapsed onto the floor in shock. Dead… his monster was finally dead… he was free.


	6. Chapter 6

Cas sat quietly on the floor as he stared at the empty sockets that were once Alec’s eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there, but he didn’t want to move. His body has been in a non-stop fight or flight response for days now, and he was just exhausted. Which was confusing because he shouldn’t feel any kind of physical exhaustion, and wondered if this was something due to the new grace. The sound of a whimper interrupted his thoughts, and Cas turned to the doorway to see his new wolf friend.

            “Hey, buddy,” Cas stated softly, prompting the wolf to approach. The wolf laid down across Cas’s crossed legs, letting his head rest on Cas’s knee. Cas fingers began to gently pet the wolf. “Did you get those bad people?” Cas asked, continuing with his gentle tone. Of course, the wolf’s only response was to release a huff of breath before closing his eyes. Cas smiled and continue to try and coax the wolf to sleep.

            “I’m glad you’re okay, son,” a voice spoke up, startling Cas. He looked up to see his father leaning next to a window. By now the sun was setting and shining through the window, causing a shadow to fall over his father’s form. Cas looked down at his wolf friend, worried that he had jostled the wolf, but the wolf only peaked one eye open before closing it again. As if the appearance of his creator was an everyday thing.

            “I’m surprised you came back,” Cas answered honestly.

            “I said I would, didn’t I,” Chuck responded.

            “Hmm,” was all Cas said before returning his focus to stroking the wolf’s surprisingly soft fur.

There was a moment of silence before Chuck spoke up to say, “I wanted to talk to you about your new grace.” Cas looked back at Chuck to show he was listening.

“Well you probably noticed that most barriers or wardings are not going to work on you. You can still do all the same things you did before, just with a stronger impact. The major difference is you will be able to experience many things on a human level. You can’t get sick, and it will be harder to hurt or kill you; but you will experience emotions, feelings. You will also need food and sleep.”

Cas tilted his head before asking, “Why?” out of curiosity.

“Are you complaining?” Chuck challenged with a knowing grin.

Cas flushed and looked back down at the wolf to resume stroking his fur, not wanting to tell his father he was right. It was futile though because Chuck let out a chuckle before saying, “That it why your grace deemed you worthy. You see what gifts those things are, how much stronger they make you,” Chuck then let out a resigned sigh as he said, “And that is something I fear most of your brothers and sisters will never understand.”

There was a moment of silence before Cas spoke up, “The other day when he was holding me, Sam, and Dean at the hideout, and he…,” Cas swallowed as he threw a glance at Alec’s dead body to ensure he was still dead, “when he…” He cursed inwardly.

“You’re asking about the grace that defended you,” Chuck asked, and Cas could of sworn he sounded almost gentle. Cas nodded his confirmation before Chuck answered, “Yes, that was your humanity’s grace defending you. It’s been dormant in you for quite a while now, ever since the first time you chose the Winchesters and free will over heaven. You sacrificing your grace for Dean was the final trigger.”

Cas nodded in understanding before explaining, “Alec knew Enochian I have never seen before. How is that possible?”

Chuck blinked in confusion before answering, “I guess Sam and Dean haven’t had a chance to catch you up,” and then went into explaining everything from Alec and his soldiers really being disgraced reapers to their punishment of never ending humanity. Cas paled as he looked at the seemingly dead form of Alec.

“A-are you saying he’s going to come back,” Cas choked. The wolf must have sensed his distress as he nuzzled his nose under Cas’s hand, letting out a whine. In an instant his father was crouched before him, gently grasping his son’s shoulder.

“No... no, Castiel, he won’t. I saw an end to that. Alec… all of them… are in the empty now,” Chuck quickly assured, “he’ll never hurt you again,” and there was that gentle tone again. Cas swallowed as he felt his throat close up. From his previous time of being human, he recognized this to be the warning signs of tears coming. Cas squeezed his eyes closed in order to try and stop them coming… he didn’t want to cry in front of Chuck.

“You must have other questions?” Chuck asked.

Cas couldn’t help but scoff at that as he said, “None I’m expecting any answers to,” he answered coldly. That brought on another sigh from Chuck, who said, “Despite what you may think, I do love you, son.” Before Cas could answer, they were interrupted by the sound of Dean calling his name from the entryway into the hideout. Cas turned towards the sound, but froze when he could have sworn someone just placed a kiss on his temple. Cas looked back to where Chuck was sitting, but he was gone. Deciding to think about what he talked about with Chuck later, Cas looked towards the doorway to yell out, “In here, Dean!” The next second his two favorite humans rushed into the room, bodies tensed and guns drawn. They took one look at the dead body of Alec and Cas sitting crossed legged on the floor with a wolf in his lap, and gave twin sighs of relief as they relaxed their shoulders and holstered their weapons.

            “I see you made a new friend,” Dean teased with a gentle smile, bringing out a soft chuckle from Cas.

            “Is the wolf hurt?” Sam asked concerned.

            “No, Raul is not hurt,” Cas assured as he continued to stroke the wolf’s fur.

            Oddly, that response caused both brothers to falter in their smiles.

            “Uh… you named him ‘Raul,’ Cas?” Sam asked, and Cas would say he sounded hesitant. Cas frowned as he looked back and forth between the worry expressions on both brothers faces. Dean stepped forward and crouched down to Cas’s level.

            “Cas… buddy… wolves are wild animals… not domestic pets. They thrive in their natural habitat. He can’t come back to the bunker with us, it would not be fair to him.”

            Cas confused expression relaxed as he realized what Dean and Sam were worried about.

            “Oh, no, don’t worry. I had no intention of bringing Raul back to the bunker,” Cas gazed down at the wolf as he gently stroked the fur on his head, “He would be miserable there.” Cas looked back up at the brothers, and almost laughed at the exaggerated looks of relief on their faces.

            “I can’t say his real name in my human vessel, and I just wanted to be able to call him by his name, so I chose the closest thing I could find,” Cas admitted, blushing, before gently shaking the wolf’s fur as a way to wake him up, “Time to get up, Raul. You need to get back to your pack,” Cas whispered softly. The wolf let out a huff but finally standing up, putting his huge body taller than Cas’s sitting down form. The wolf gave a quick lick to Cas’s cheek before bounding out of the hideout.

            “Chuck was just explaining everything to me before you arrived,” Cas stated as he stood up. Both brothers blinked in surprised as they looked around the room.

            “He’s gone now though,” Cas stated with a sigh.

            “Huh, figures,” Dean grumbled with scoff.

            Cas went into a quick explanation into everything his father has said. Cas was surprised to see the happy face on Dean, and the thoughtful expression on Sam’s.

            “Dude, you can have pie now… and burgers,” Dean exclaimed and Cas couldn’t help but chuckle at that child-like excitement on Dean’s face.

            “Did he say how much food or sleep you would need? Is it the same as me and Dean,” Sam asked.

            “Hmm… no, he didn’t say. Honestly, I didn’t think to ask,” Cas answered with a thoughtful frown.

            “Oh, well, no big deal. We’ll find out. Once you have completely recovered, we will be able to get an accurate idea,” Sam stated.

            “Dude, who cares about that. He can eat pizza! Just wait till we get to the bunker, Cas! I’ll make you a feast!” Dean exclaimed, and this time, Cas could not help but let out a full out laugh. He stopped and felt himself flush when he noticed the two brothers smiling softly at him. Cas look down at his feet, but was surprised when he was suddenly pulled into the arms of his two favorites humans. Cas blinked in surprise, as the Winchester brothers were not the group hug type, but nevertheless he returned the hugs. When they separated after what had seemed like a whole minute, Sam stated, “We’re so glad we found you, Cas.” A strong hand gripped his shoulder, and Cas looked at Dean, who was smiling softly when he said, “What do you say we get you home.”

            Cas gave a smile of his own before answering, “Nothing would make me more happier, Dean.” Dean smiled and tugged Cas into another tight hug, and this time Cas let himself rest his head on Dean’s shoulder, relaxing into the hug. They finally pulled away after an obvious throat clearing from Sam. Then they finally started the trek back to the impala. Several hours later when they finally made it to the bottom of the mountain and back to baby, all three men were sore and exhausted. The sight of baby was such a relief for Cas, and he sighed in contentment when he settled into the leather back seats. They were finally going home.

 

            Within Cas’s first week back at the bunker, he found out that he needed as much food and sleep that Sam and Dean needed. Granted, Cas slept the whole first day and a half. The second that Cas stepped into the familiar safety of the bunker, of his home, that the fatigue finally hit him. Before arriving home, his fight or flight response was keeping his body and mind awake, despite the sleep deprivation he suffered when being tortured by Alec. But once that exhaustion hit, he couldn’t lay down in his bed fast enough. Thankfully, the brothers were thoughtful enough to let him wake naturally, rather than try and wake him up. After that, they find out he needed as much sleep as a human does, or his new grace will start to weaken.

            Of course, that is also when his sleep problems started to happen. Once his body got the amount of sleep he was dangerously lacking, it seemed almost impossible to get the full eight hours of sleep. In the middle of the night, he would wake up from a nightmare of never-ending excruciating pain, and he could never bring himself to fall back to sleep. Too scared that Alec would be there waiting for him as soon as he closed his eyes. So Cas had taken to bringing a book back to his bedroom every night, so that he had something to read at least while he was awake. At first he would just head to the library, turn on a table lamp, and read from there. Which is where the early riser, Sam, would find him every morning; and would proceed to lecture him about healthy sleeping schedules. After one too many lectures from Sam, and one time from Dean, he decided to make it seem like he was sleeping through the night by bringing a book back to his room instead, and stay in his room until he heard both brothers start moving around in the morning. That was three weeks ago, and Cas had thought he had mastered this routine by now; confident that the brothers were none the wiser.

            Of course, the nightmares were not the only thing keeping him awake at night, if he was being honest. The other part keeping him up, was the sudden change between Dean and him. By change, he was not referring to the kiss and the “I love you” that the two had shared. That was a most welcome change, and one he had wanted to continue. But the change he was referring to, was the sudden distance that Dean seemed to be putting between the two of them. Cas didn’t understand it, and worst scenario upon worst scenario was running through Cas’s mind. Did Dean regret what happen? Did Dean confuse his relief of his friend being okay, that he mistook for love, and he just didn’t know to break it to Cas? Or was that their moment? Now that they’ve had it, does Dean want no part of it anymore?

Cas’s thoughts were interrupted when his bedroom door was opened. Cas looked up and was shocked to see the subject of his thoughts standing there. Dean, in sleep pants and shirtless, leaned against the doorway of Cas’s bedroom as he rubbed his eyes. Cas wondered if Dean was just coming back from the bathroom or the kitchen, and had somehow figured out Cas was awake.

“Cas? I saw the light on under your door. What are you still doing up?” Dean asked sleepily as he let out a yawn.

“I… um…,” Cas looked down at the book in his hands and tried to subtly hide it under the covers, but then Dean noticed the movement and Cas watched those green eyes gravitate directly to the book in his hands.

“Uh-huh, busted,” Dean teased out as he stepped fully into Cas’s room, leaving the door open behind him. “Cas, buddy, you know your grace depends on you taking better care of your body. You need to sleep.”

Cas let out a sigh as he stopped trying to hide the book and said, “I’m trying, Dean. I’m not doing it on purpose. I just can’t,” he explained, not bothering to hide his frustration.

Dean walked closer and sat on the bed so that he was facing Cas before asking, “Why are you unable to sleep?”

Cas picked at some loose thread on his comforter before saying, “I do start out falling asleep, but then I’ll wake up from nightmares, and then I can’t bring myself to fall back asleep after them.” Cas let out a dry scoff before saying, “You would think that by killing him, he wouldn’t still be hurting me,” Cas turned helpless eyes to Dean before saying, “but he’s still there Dean, every time I close my eyes, he’s there… hurting me… and I can’t make it stop.” When Cas’s voice cracked at that last part, Dean slowly moved forward to sit next to Cas on the bed, back against the headboard, before wrapping an arm around Cas’s shoulders.

“Shh… it gets better. I promise, buddy, and I am here with you. You are not alone.”

Instead of being comforted by this, Cas was instantly annoyed, and shot up from the bed to turn and glare at Dean, who blinked in confusion up at Cas.

“Aren’t I, though? Because it sure as hell seems like it,” Cas yelled.

“Cas? W-what are you…,” Dean started, looking completely lost, but Cas didn’t even give him the chance to finish.

“You kissed me out there, Dean! You told me that you loved me,” Cas sobbed out.

“Cas, why are you…,” Dean started to say, but Cas cut him off again by holding up his hand, all five fingers spread out.

“Five weeks, Dean! I have been home five weeks now, and the only thing you have to talk to me about is my damn sleeping schedule!”

“Now, just a…,” but he was cut off once again.

“Anything else, and you avoid me like the plague. Not a single word… or touch… or anything.”

“Cas…,” Dean started, surprised by the sudden outburst, but was once again interrupted.

“Do you regret it, or something? Was it a lie?” Cas yelled, but this time Dean finally got a word in.

“No, of course not,” Dean exclaimed, “I have thought about nothing except being with you.”

“Then where have you been these past five weeks,” Cas snapped back.

“Giving _you_ space,” Dean defended, as he shot up  from leaning back against the headboard to face Cas as he remained seated on the bed.

“I didn’t ask for space,” Cas yelled out.

“Cas… baby… you just went through a trauma! You were tortured and preyed upon in the most vile way, and I just thought that any kind of intimacy would be too much,” Dean stated and followed to quickly assure, “Which is perfectly okay and understandable.” Cas frowned as he observed Dean during his hurried explanation, and felt himself relax a little when he saw the sincerity in those eyes, but that didn’t make the hurt  go away.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe it should be _me_ that is deciding what I need or don’t need? Or that maybe you should have at least had a conversation with me before you went off  and decided what _I_ needed,” Cas asked softly, and Dean’s tensed shoulders dropped.

“I guess I should have talked to you first, and I am sorry for not doing that. But, Cas, I promise you, I was only trying to help because it didn’t matter to me how long it took before we could be a couple. It could take the rest of my life, and it still wouldn’t matter because you are it for me, Cas,” Dean explained.

Finally, Cas felt his own shoulders relaxed from the tension, feeling confident now that Dean was not regretting anything. After another second, Cas dropped his hands from their crossed position, and he couldn’t stop the small smile that threatened to cross his face.

“You can be so clueless, you know that,” Cas whispered fondly.

This time Dean could only blink in confusion as he could only say, “Uhhh… what?”

Cas took a few steps closer as he said, “Dean, I am probably going to have nightmares for a very long time… and, yes, I am probably going to have triggers; but you, Dean Winchester, are not one of them,” he explained, “Alec was a coward, whose only defense was to render someone defenseless so that he could hurt them. If I had access to my grace, even with how limited it was before all of this happen, I could have killed every single person in that house while bringing the whole house down in crumbles with one careful surge of my grace. I don’t need another person in my life to feel safe,” Cas began explaining, “but that doesn’t stop me from still feeling it with another person, and that person is you. I have always felt safe with you, Dean, and that will never change… no matter what happens.”

At that confession, Dean returned Cas’s smile and held his arm out before softly saying, “Come here.” Cas moved forward and let himself be gently tugged onto Dean’s lap, and then they were finally kissing again. After a moment Dean pulled away and leaned his forehead against Cas’s as he catches his breath.

“I love you,” Cas found himself whispering. Dean moved his forehead away so that he could press a gentle kiss to Cas’s forehead before replying, “I love you too.” Cas smiled and before he could say anything else, his mouth opened on its own accord as it let loose a long yawn. That brought a chuckle from Dean, who gently carded his fingers through Cas’s wild hair to say, “I guess that tired you out. What do you say to staying with me tonight this time? Maybe that’ll chase the nightmares away.”

Cas smiled back before saying, “I’d say that is a good idea,” and then gasped as Dean suddenly stood up, holding Cas in his arms. Cas quickly wrapped tight arms around Dean’s neck as he was carried, in Dean’s arms, to Dean’s room down the hall.

“I’m not a damsel in distress, you know,” Cas felt like he should clarify, only feeling half annoyed. Dean only let out a quiet laughter before saying, “Mm. Wouldn’t dream of it.” Cas decided to let that go, and five minutes later both men were lying in Dean’s bed. One second, Dean was wrapping an arm around Cas’s waist to tug him back against his chest, and the next Cas was out like a light. There were no more nightmares that night.

 

When Cas next opened his eyes, it was to smile and stretch out his arms, for it was the first time in five weeks he woke up so well rested. He sat up, and a quick look around told him he was in Dean’s room, but Dean was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t left to wonder long, though, because it was that second that the bedroom door opened, and in stepped Dean. He had both hands full carrying a large tray with two plates filled with pancakes, hash browns, and fruit, and two glasses of orange juice.

“Hey,” Dean brightened when he saw the awake Cas and said, “Good morning, sunshine.”

“Is this a special occasion, or are you always going to be this sickeningly romantic,” Cas stated amused, lightening the remark with a soft smile so that Dean knew he was only teasing.

“Ha. Your act isn’t fooling me. You love this and you know it,” Dean teased back.

“I will not get all mushy gushy. I refuse. Not even for you, Dean Winchester,” Cas stated with a mocking serious face.

“Oh no,” Dean returned with his own mock seriousness, “We certainly can’t have that.”

Dean carefully set the tray down on the night stan in order to lean over and place a kiss on Cas’s lips, who smiled into the kiss and gave a pleased, _hmm_ , before moving back to look at the pancake breakfast. He leaned over and cut small bite from his plate, and let out a pleased moan when he taste the sweetness.

“Those taste amazing, Dean. How did you get this past, Sam, without a lecture about healthy eating or rotting teeth?”

Dean looked back at the bedroom door, then back at Cas. He winked and held a finger  to his lips as he said, “Shh. What Sam doesn’t know, won’t hurt.” Cas laughed, but before he could say anything, a voice spoke up from behind them.

“Sam does know, and Sam does hurt.” Dean whirled around to see his unimpressed brother with bitch face #45. Sam rolled his eyes before looking back at Cas to say, “Good morning, Cas. You’re looking much better,” he stated before heading back down the hall.

“Thank you, Sam,” Cas called after his friend, and went back to his plate to steal a strawberry. He looked back at Dean, and was startled to see that Dean had been staring at him, a soft smile crossing his face. Cas blushed and quickly swallowed the piece of strawberry he had been chewing on to say, “What? Why are you looking at me like that,” he asked with a nervous laugh.

“Nothing. It’s just that, Sam’s right. A full night of sleep looks good on you,” Dean stated softly. Then he let out a laugh before lifting a hand to wipe his thumb at the corner of Cas’s mouth, and said, “You missed a piece of strawberry.” Dean brought the tip of his thumb to his mouth to take the piece of strawberry into his mouth, his gaze turning more heated. Cas could only blush more, but did not get a chance to say anything because Dean was leaning forward and then his lips was being covered with another kiss. Almost as fast as it happened, Dean pulled away a short distance with a searching gaze to ask, “Was that okay?” Cas smiled and lifted a hand to grasp the front of Dean’s shirt. “That was more than okay,” Cas whispered before tugging Dean forward into another kiss. Cas shivered when he felt a tongue softly caress his bottom lip, seeking entrance. He opened his mouth and moaned as Dean deepened the kiss. After a moment Dean had to pull away to catch his breath, but once he did, he asked, “What do you say, you and I do something special tonight, just you and me?”

Cas let himself smile as he lifted his hand to run it through Dean’s hair before teasing, “Are you trying, as you humans say, to wine and dine me, Dean Winchester?”

Dean laughed softly before saying, “Well I am nothing, if not a perfect gentleman,” he teased back. Cas leaned forward to give Dean another kiss before saying softly, “It’s a date.”

 

Several hours later, after assisting Sam with some research in the bunker’s library and errands around the town, Dean lead Cas back to his room. Cas was surprised to see the room filled with lit candles. A small two person table had been moved into the room and placed next to the bed. It had a single rose, one Cas recognize that grew naturally just outside the bunker, inside a vase. On the table was a beautifully prepared pasta dinner. Cas looked to the bed and felt himself blush when he noticed that the bed was covered in rose petals. After another moment of Cas staring in shock, he noticed Dean shuffle his feet a little bit. He looked over to see that Dean had a hand on the back of his head, as he ruffled his hair in nervousness.

“I-I couldn’t give us the traditional dinner and a movie…but this way we’ll have our privacy,” Dean finished hopefully, as if he was actually worried that Cas wouldn’t love every detail of this. Cas quickly stepped forward and thanked Dean with a slow kiss before saying, “I love it, Dean.” Cas looked around some more at the carefully set up scene before asking, “But when did you have time to do this?”

“While you were in town with Sam. I had him distract you for me,” Dean admitted with a small smile. Cas loved this sudden shyness in, Dean. It was adorable. Cas smiled before throwing his arms around Dean’s neck for a deeper kiss, whispering afterwards, “This is amazing. Thank you, Dean.” Dean smiled softly back before laying his own kiss on Cas, and the two settled into the dinner portion of the date. Cas was relieved when the two fell easily into a flow of conversation, but despite the lack of awkwardness, Cas still found himself distracted. The low lighting from the candles around the room, painted a beautiful picture for Cas. Dean’s green eyes seemed to really stood out in this lighting, looking more vibrant than Cas has ever seen. Dean picked up a wine glass, and Cas swallowed as his attention was drawn to that large hand, and he couldn’t help but imagine how that large hand will feel while gripping his hips as he buried himself inside Cas. Cas must have been quiet for too long because Dean suddenly put his glass down.

“Why don’t we move onto the movie portion of tonight’s date. You can pick whatever you want on Netflix,” Dean offered. He stood up and gently grabbed Cas’s hand. Cas let himself be tugged up from his chair, but from there, decided to pull Dean into another slow, deep kiss. He brought his hands up to Dean’s chest, carefully nudging him to walk backwards towards the bed. Once Dean hit the edge of the bed, he dropped down onto the bed in a seated position. Cas clambered onto the bed after Dean, straddling Dean as he sat comfortably on his lap. Dean moaned as he pulled away from the kiss to catch his breath and manage to gasp out, “What about the movie?”

“Later,” was all Cas said as he grasped Dean’s cheeks for another kiss. He moaned as he felt Dean’s hands traveled down to grip low on Cas’s hips in a tight hold, and tug Cas even more flush against his body. Cas began kissing his way down Dean’s neck, and was pleased when that drew out a pleased groan from the hunter.

“Mmm…this usually happens,” Dean gasped when Cas found a particular sensitive spot on his neck, “ _after_ the movie portion of the date.”

Cas laughed as he finally straightened up from Dean’s neck. Slowly he brought his hands up and started to unbutton his shirt, taking his time with each button. He smirked when Dean’s attention was taken by the show he was giving him.

“Since when have we ever did things the usual way,” Cas asked, his voice deepened even further with arousal. As he was finally pulling his shirt down from his shoulders, he ground his butt against Dean’s groin just before his shirt fell to the floor. In a second, Cas was suddenly on his back, with Dean leaning over him. His mouth was taken in a more firm kiss before Dean whispered, “You’ve got a point there.” He made swift effort with the button and zipper of Cas’s jeans. Cas lifted his hips to aid Dean as he tugged the pants down from Cas’s legs. As soon as Cas’s legs were free of the pants, they were tossed across the room. Dean moved back up Cas’s body, this time latching onto Cas’s neck. Suddenly Dean pulled away, causing Cas to let out a whine of disapproval.

“Cas,” Dean spoke softly, and Cas opened his eyes in confusion, sensing the sudden seriousness in Dean tone, “are you sure you’re ready for this. I don’t want you to feel like you have to…,” but Cas didn’t let him finish. He grasped Dean’s shirt, and with a gentle tug, he pulled Dean back down on top of him and into a soft kiss.

“I’m sure, Dean,” he whispered as he gazed up into those worried green eyes. When Dean still looked unsure, Cas lifted a hand to cup Dean’s cheek before saying, “I promise, Dean. I want this. I want to be with you,” he finished that last part with a softer a voice as he lifted a hand to caress through Dean’s hair. Dean’s worried expression eased into a soft smile before leaning down to capture Cas’s lips into another kiss. It wasn’t long before Dean was naked and hovering above Cas, lips attached just below his ear. Cas shivered as he tilted his head to give more access to that spot, letting out a low groan as he did so. There was a rumble as he felt Dean chuckle before latching onto that spot more. Cas didn’t need a mirror to tell him there was a hicky left behind. Cas ran his fingers through Dean’s hair as the man worked his way further down Cas’s body.

Hot, wet warmth attacks Cas’s nipples. Cas let out a gasp, shocked by how sensitive his nipples were, and how good that had felt. Cas got a glance of a wicked grin cross Dean’s face before he was latching onto Cas’s nipples again, making Cas squirm and moan out again.

“More,” Cas pleaded, and groaned when that earned him another pleased _Mmm_ from Dean. He ignored Cas’s plea, and spent more time on each nipple. When he finally released Cas’s nipples from his mouth, it was to travel lower. In one movement, Cas cock was engulfed in Dean’s mouth.

“Ah! D-Dean,” Cas managed to scream out before Dean start to bob his head up and down Cas’s cock. Cas clenched the bed sheets in his hands, and he couldn’t help by thrust up deeper in Dean’s mouth. In response, Dean firmly grabbed Cas’s hips and held him down, bringing out another whine from Cas. Dean moved his head back up to focus on the sensitive head of his cock, and Cas let out another scream when Dean dived his tongue into the slit on his cockhead.

“D-Dean…I need you inside me,” Cas begged.

Dean suddenly lifted his mouth away from Cas’s cock, and a sudden coldness told Cas that Dean had also moved away.

“Dean,” Cas cried out, desperate.

In an instant he felt Dean’s lips on his own before pulling away to say, “Shh. I was just getting the lube.” Dean then gently grasped Cas’s thighs, and pushed them up to where Cas was almost bent in half. He was taking his time with lubing up his fingers, so Cas decided to hurry him along.

“Hurry up, Dean,” Cas whined.

“Patience,” Dean teased with a chuckle.

The lube finger gently circled Cas’s hole before finally slowly entering. Dean gently thrust the finger in and out, before slowing entering in a second finger. Cas writhed in impatience before he thrust his hip up in order to meet Dean’s fingers, but then Dean grasped Cas’s hip with his free hand and held him down again.

“Dean!” Cas whined out again.

“Shh,” Dean teased with a gentle grin before slowly entering in a third finger.

“Dean Winchester, if you do not fuck me right now…,” but Cas did not get to finish his threat, as Dean chose that moment to angle his fingers. Cas screamed out when a pleasurable tingle travel throughout his body when Dean brushed against a certain spot. Dean let out an amused chuckle, before purposely thrusting fingers against that spot again and again. Cas writhe as he desperately grasped at the sheets under him.

“D-Dean, please….I need you inside me now…PLEASE,” Cas screamed.

“Mmm…that’s what I like to hear,” Dean teased, and the suddenly his fingers were gone. Cas didn’t have to wait long though before he felt the head of Dean’s cock at his entrance. Just as he did with his fingers, Dean took his time entering Cas’s body. Cas tried to hurry him along by attempting to thrust his hips up, but both of Dean’s hands were holding his hips down now.

“Shh,” Dean chastised, “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”

Cas opened his mouth, but before he could get another plea in, Dean’s mouth was covering his own again. Dean moved a hand up, and rubbed a nipple in between his callused fingers. Cas moaned into the kiss, and let himself be temporarily distracted. Finally,  Dean was fully sheathed inside Cas. Dean pulled away from the kiss to gaze down at Cas, taking in his every expression and noise as he slowly started to pull back until he was almost out of Cas’s body, the slammed back into Cas, who let out another scream in pleasure. Dean then picked up a rhythm with each hard thrust, until he angled his hips, and then he was hitting that spot inside Cas again. This time Cas could only scream with each thrust, and the whole time he never moved his eyes away from Dean. It wasn’t long before Cas felt this warmth start to grow from his abdomen, and he responded by turning his face into the pillow under his head in an attempt in not announcing his orgasm to the whole bunker. A gentle hand grasped his fingers and turned his chin so that Cas was looking into those green eyes he loves so much.

“Oh, no you don’t, baby. I want to hear you. Scream for me, baby,” Dean teased, and Cas did just that, not holding back this time.

“D-DEAN, I’M G-GONNA….I’M GON…I’M CUMMING,” Cas screamed out finally, and cum exploded from the tip of his cock, landing onto his stomach. Dean’s thrust then sped up as they became more erratic.

“Ah…Fuck…Cas,” Dean called out before he finally released inside the angel and collapsing on top of him. The two continued to lay there as they work to catch their breath.

“That was amazing,” Cas finally gasped out, bringing out a pleased laughter from Dean.

“I’m glad you approved,” Dean teased.

The two continued to lay there until finally, Dean let out a groan as he forced himself to get up and moved to his bathroom. Cas heard the water running before Dean walked back out with a wet wash cloth in his hand. Dean wiped away the cum from Cas’s body before throwing the wash cloth at the laundry basket on the other side of the room and collapsing back on the bed next to Cas. Dean reach an arm out to Cas, who happily moved to where he was cuddled up next to Dean, resting his head on Dean’s chest. There was a peaceful silence as Dean lazily stoke a hand through Cas’s hair, before Dean spoke.

“Cas… are you sure you are okay with this,” Dean asked, and Cas could hear the concern in his voice.

Cas pulled himself up onto his arms in order to look at Dean as he said, “Dean, we just made love,” he teased, and was pleased at the blush that earned him.

“I know that,” Dean hastily answered, “I just wanted to make sure you are not throwing yourself into this too soon.”

Cas let a soft smile cross his face before he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Dean’s lips before saying, “I have been certain for a very long time, Dean. I am in love with you. I was before Alec came along. I still loved you even when he tried to torture it out of me. I am in love with you now, as I always will be. Like you said, you are it for me… if you’ll have me,” Cas stated, that last line coming out a little unsure.

Dean smiled and gently brought Cas’s face down for another long kiss before saying, “Of course, silly, in whatever way you’ll let me… I love you too.”

Cas smiled down at his righteous man. For the first time in two months, he knew that everything was going to be okay… no matter what happened. For as long as he and Dean had each other’s back… he knew without a shadow of a doubt… he wasn’t alone.


End file.
